Wulguru local Kerry Guinea was tucked up in bed when a massive roar heralded a landslip that inundated his Townsville yard with tonnes of mud and rock.
"It sounded like a jet roaring," he told AAP.
"I went out in the dark and there was mud everywhere, there'd be hundreds of tonnes, it's huge."
"Bits of trees, log and goodness knows what have washed down."
"Our house is fine but it's come through the bottom of the neighbour's place and the houses next to that have rock and trees all around them."
The Townsville residents whose homes back on to Mount Stuart have fled them.
Mr Guinea isn't sure when they will be able to return as the once-in-a-100 year monsoonal deluge continues.
"There a big rock up high they think may come down, it's truck size, and there's water still flowing down everywhere," he said.
North of Townsville, Elly Carpentier left on Friday morning to collect two of her three children from school and 45 minutes later her high-set home was underwater.
"There was no water on the ground around our house when I left," she told AAP.
"The floodwater came up three metres in 30 minutes. My house was submerged under water, that's how quick it was. It was incredible. I have never seen anything like it.
"I looked at my house and it was like an island. All I could see was part of the roof and my green Colorbond and that was it."
Swift water rescue crews were called to save her husband and four-year-old daughter who were trapped inside.
"That was the only time I was scared - when my husband and daughter were in that house and it just felt like it was taking forever, but they are both okay, we all are."
She and her family have been evacuated to the Bluewater Community Centre where more people are expected to take shelter as the disaster unfolds.
Co-ordinator Darla Astill says about 100 flood-affected families dropped in on Friday and some have lost pretty much everything.
"People have had to just sit and watch cars, tractors, containers, ride-ons and all sorts of stuff just floating in the creek," she told AAP.
"There's not much you can do, it's still raining, we've got more rain predicted so we're just sandbagging here at the moment if it does rain again."
"There's been a couple of dogs floating by, people tried to rescue them, there was also a cow that got pulled out and survived but one the dogs they couldn't get to."
Australian Associated Press