As it happened: NSW, Queensland flood death toll rises as SES continues rescues in Lismore, Ballina and Brisbane; Sydney prepares for torrential downpours across city

But they've got an army of support from across the NSW and Queensland who will come help the pair clean up and rebuild.

Already, a group of good Samaritans has helped clean out the pair's shop in town. The sense of community in Lismore remains strong.

Many residents share a tale of kindness they've seen in the past few days: from the lady offering strangers watermelon, two young women offering hot dinners as they drive up the main street, to the man dropping off beer to a family cleaning up their shop.

Meanwhile, Nick Sullivan points to the top of a shop in Lismore where the water ran up to on Monday. He, like many others, used his boat to help people and their pets to safety.

Now, Mr Sullivan and Shay Greathead are helping clean out that shop, bundling mud-covered items into the street. The pair will have a beer tonight, before gearing up to continue the cleaning up process tomorrow.

"I've just been over at my ex-partner's parents place helping throw shit out. We'll do mum's house tomorrow. It will be busy," Mr Sullivan said.

"I'll come with you," Mr Greathead added.

Mr Sullivan then begins to list others in or around Lismore that the pair will go help out.

"The list goes on – it's every one we know," he said.

“In the 2017 flood, they took all the flood damaged stuff to Brisbane to be deal with it. But they’ve had their own floods so it’s got nowhere for it to go,” Crystal Dwight said. “Our dump is underwater - if we need a broom or something as simple as a bucket, there is nowhere to go.

“But this is when Lismore comes together. You hug people you’ve never met, you cry on their shoulder... you just get in and help each other.”

With fuel shortages in town, Ms Dwight, who runs Jazz Construction, said a farmer has donated 100 litres of diesel which will enable them to get the bobcat into town and move the growing pile of rubbish that lines the street.

“We’ve been through floods before but this is beyond,” Ms Dwight said. The business owners say without financial support, they won’t be able to get back on their feet.

“When I came here, the first one I walked out and went, ‘holy hell look at that’,” he says. “You don’t really know it until you actually stare it in the face”.

He packed his bags and was ready to leave town when he heard the predictions the floodwaters could exceed last year’s levels, but stuck around when the conditions were more favourable and the predicted 240 millimetres of rain did not eventuate.

“You can’t predict, it’s like you’re betting on a horse,” he says. “When they thought it was gonna hit 15 metres plus, I thought ‘well I better start packing’. So I’ve packed and I’m ready to go”.

Andrew O’Connor and his family bought a house in Windsor a few years ago because it was cheaper than everywhere else. The downside is the frequent risk of frequent flooding.

“It’s nerve wracking,” he says. It also makes insurance costly, with their bill increasing $500 after last year’s floods.

But he says they’re luckier than others who own slightly lower properties and are unable to find insurance.

“We were ready to bugger off last night,” he said.

Sydney’s COVID restrictions prevented his pick-your-own fruit business from operating last year, leaving the fruit from thousands of mandarin and orange trees – some of which are again under water now – to fall from the tree and rot.

“I got the June long weekend, but that was it,” he said.

“We were short a boat, then two young blokes from Lennox Head turned up with a boatload of people [they’d rescued], so we said, ‘can we come with you?’

As they approached the woman’s house in South Lismore, they said they could touch the streetlights outside and had to duck under the power lines, the water level was so high. A pair of trees now visible out the front were completely submerged.

Senior Constable King swam into the woman’s house under the front doorway, and as he entered he heard a faint “hello” and found the woman inside.

The officers needed something to rescue her on. They tried a kayak they found on a roof, but it was too big to fit through the window. Then one of the boaties spotted the boogie board stuck in the tree. They managed to make it work.

As they tried to get the woman from the boogie board into the rescue boat, they were pushed under the water themselves, despite wearing lifejackets.

“The current was extremely strong. I had to hang on to the window, and my legs were flailing about,” Senior Constable Davis said.

The officers and volunteers then motored back to the Bruxner Highway, where the woman was carried onto dry land and taken to hospital in an ambulance.