Miriam Torzillo has a family home within the "red zone" in North Lismore - she hopes a recent funding announcement by the government means her family can move so they never have to experience the terror they felt in the February 28 flood, ever again.
With a floor height of 13.4m, floodwater rising a metre inside the Wotherspoon St house was something they never imagined.
"We thought we would be safe here," she said, but Miriam, her children, and grandchildren had to be rescued by the tinny flotilla.
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Houses along her street remain twisted and in ruin after the flood, and some are simply gone. One was swept off its stilts, smashing into another house, that toppled onto the skate rink.
Miriam concedes living close to the junction of the Wilsons River and Leycester Creek is no longer possible, and is keen to hear more details of the State and Federal governments' $800 million Resilient Homes Program at a forum on Friday.
She said "many questions" have cropped up since the funding announcement was made - questions about affordability, access, sustainability, flexibility, and fairness.
Ideally, Miriam would like to move the timber house to a safer location on flood-free land, surrounded by other people in her community.
She sees it as a sustainable way to reuse valuable materials, as well as maintaining community ties.
Many people bought houses in North and South Lismore because they could afford them, Miriam said, and because they could be raised above the 1-in-100 year flood level.
But the February flood has proven they are no longer safe places to live.
Without government assistance to supply affordable land, Miriam says many people won't be able to rebuild in Lismore - any money they get from the buy back scheme unlikely to allow them to buy flood free land on the open market.
But with land provided, she sees an opportunity to provide something special as people relocate - a place that embraces diversity and community, and offers sustainable options for water and energy supply.
"If we have to go somewhere, we'd hope to go to somewhere that has the latest thinking."
She suggests other solutions to the situation beyond relocating to higher ground - from creating more battle-axe house blocks in flood-free areas, to building social housing apartment blocks on the fringes of the flood zone.
And when the houses are eventually removed from the flood plain in a "planned retreat", Miriam pictures a beautiful parkland.
"It could be returned to nature, to provide a "giant environmental park, with places where festivals could happen, with plazas where markets could come into, with towers that would have environmental information. A world leading place - that would be a lovely vision."
Miriam knows the process will take time, so they will wait. And while they wait, they make sure they are prepared should another catastrophic flood hits before they leave.
