Daniel Fitzgerald slept in his car for five days, watching helplessly as floodwaters slowly destroyed everything inside his home for the second time.
Deadly flooding has lashed parts of NSW, resulting in five deaths, damaging up to 10,000 properties and cutting off more than 50,000 people in regional towns.
The deluge did not spare Mr Fitzgerald's home at Taree, on the state's mid-north coast, which he shares with his four children and brother Michael Forbes, who has a disability.
"I was devastated - there's nothing you can do. You can't stop water," he told AAP on Saturday.
Water lapped the front of the old weatherboard house before inundating the property, forcing Mr Fitzgerald to wade through waist-deep waters to survey the devastation.
The brothers were already mourning their mother, who died in April.
"It's just like losing my mother all over again. It's heartbreaking," Mr Fitzgerald said.
Furniture, clothes and kids' toys were destroyed but losing precious mementos to the floods - including USB sticks containing family photos and videos - was devastating.
"We didn't have time (to prepare). I got some clothes out but that's it," Mr Fitzgerald said.
The family expects it will cost more than $150,000 to replace the damaged goods, while Mr Forbes, a keen vinyl, comic book and DVD collector, lost up to $100,000 in items.
The destruction brought back unwanted memories from four years earlier, when their home last flooded.
"The first time we had insurance and it took them over two years to repair the place," Mr Fitzgerald said.
"It was stressful the whole way through just trying to get them to do anything, even though we paid insurance for years."
This time, there's no insurance policy to fall back on.
The family's previous insurer refused to cover them again, while others had unaffordable prices of up to $15,000 that did not cover flood damage, Mr Fitzgerald said.
Family friend Sharon Revell organised a GoFundMe to help the family get back on its feet.
"Seeing them go through the loss of (their mother) and then this so soon after, they haven't had time to grieve," she said.
"The last flood was a one-in-100-year flood and this flood is a one-in-500-year flood four years later."
Kempsey Shire mayor Kinne Ring, whose council covers parts of the mid-north coast, said insurance premiums had skyrocketed with recent floods and bushfires.
"For many, it's unaffordable or they live in locations where you actually can't get insurance," she said.
"All of these things create enormous financial and emotional stress that makes this flood even more difficult to come back from."
Port Macquarie resident Margret Meagher still doesn't know the fate of her home after evacuating to her partner's house six days ago.
While waiting for a ferry to be restored to take her home, Ms Meagher recounted the "eerie" days she spent in her house during the previous floods.
"It's a bit like when your house gets burgled - the safe place you align with as a home and a place of rest becomes a bit of a battleground," she said.
