Family still out of home damaged during Cyclone Alfred, 12 months on

It is still hard for Rahul Deshpande to walk into his home.

His sprawling lounge room is empty but for an exposed slab of concrete.

What once was a family kitchen — a place he would gather with his wife and two daughters to share a meal — is now nothing more than gutted walls, timber frames and exposed cables.

In an incredibly rare event, 12 months ago ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred made landfall, only just having been downgraded as a tropical low, threatening four million people across south-east Queensland.

The Gold Coast bore the brunt of drenching rains and huge swells.

Winds ripped the roof from an apartment building, while in the leafy suburb of Ashmore a 50-metre gum tree toppled directly on the Deshpande family's home.

"The roof collapsed, water was pouring into the kitchen … luckily no one was hurt," Dr Deshpande said.

"I just saw all that damage was done. We had to move out that night."

Damaged rooms were gutted but it has taken 12 months for insurance works to begin. The concrete slab to rebuild the destroyed lounge room poured just last week.

"We were hoping we'd be closer to moving in," he said.

The path of destruction

Alfred grew in intensity as it approached, strengthening to a category two system just before landing as a low on March 8 last year.

Bribie Island was in the eye of the storm but managed to escape the worst of what had been expected, with some labelling it "a fizzer".

Huge swells broke through a narrow section of the island and exposed parts of the mainland to the ocean.

A year on and the breakthrough has been closed following months of emergency works to replenish the sandy barrier.

Earlier track maps forecast Caloundra as bearing the brunt of the crossing, something that did not materialise much to the relief of Mike Faye at a nearby power boat club.

"It was big relief and we were lucky, dead-set lucky. There's no other words for it," he said.

"We were vulnerable, there's nothing we could do about it. [The barrier had] made it a lot safer and calmer."

Further north at Hervey Bay, torrential rain fell as the system passed in the early hours of March 9, dropping more than 230 millimetres in six hours.

The pelting saw an emergency declaration issued as flash flooding inundated homes and businesses.

Meanwhile, 260mm fell over the Brisbane CBD throughout the day, flooding the low-lying suburbs of Woolloongabba, Rocklea, Wavell Heights, Stones Corner and Windsor.

Queensland recorded its largest ever post-disaster blackout in the wake of Alfred with power cut to 330,000 homes and businesses.

Operation Rainbow

On the Gold Coast, Dr Deshpende said he was glad to have kept on top of insurance renewals, with the cost of works and a rental in the area covered across the past year.

"It's the thing where you're always cribbing about having to pay so much, but it is [welcome] when this happens," he said.

More than 121,000 insurance claims were made in Queensland following the cyclone, totalling more than $1.5 billion in insured losses, according to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA).

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said the city was the most impacted by Alfred, with ICA recording over 36,000 claims in the local government area.

Cr Tate said that with each severe weather event the council learns a new lesson and has been able to better prepare for future disasters.

"Oswald, Debbie, Yasi, Alfred — I don't know who is coming next, but we learn and I'm confident that in a category three [cyclone] … our city will hold very well," he said.

The city's eroded coastline does remain scarred, however, after four million cubic metres of sand was washed out to sea.

A $39.9 million rehabilitation effort called "Operation Rainbow" by Cr Tate saw a dredger pump sand back to shore.

The barge is due to return for four months in April at an expected cost of up to $10 million.

"We want to show the world we've recovered," Cr Tate said.