Parts of Queensland's southeast are mopping up after storms flooded homes, swamped cars and generated a mini-tornado that tore the roofs from two unit blocks on the Sunshine Coast.
So far there are no reports of injuries, but the damage bill from Sunday's deluge is expected to be significant and the wild weather sparked more than 300 calls for help.
On the Sunshine Coast, locals in Mooloolaba's Akeringa Place say a mini-tornado swept through, leaving chaotic scenes in its wake.
Police told AAP two unit blocks lost their roofs and power poles were snapped bringing live wires down onto the road.
Julius Toole said he and his partner were having dinner when the roof flew off their unit, and they were left to pull their dog out from under the rubble.
"We were just looking out to the sky. The glass had all smashed through," he told Nine News.
"My partner was screaming and we dug through the rubble and found this guy under the roof and all the wires and stuff. It was probably the scariest two minutes of our life."
Many parts of the southeast recorded more than 100mm of rain in just a few hours, and some spots copped double that.
The Brisbane suburbs of Toowong and Mitchelton both got about 170mm, while Warner, north of the city, got almost 20cm.
Emergency services have expressed frustration after motorists ignored a long-running safety campaign and drove across flooded roads.
"We had a total of 23 swift water incidents - five were life rescues where we actually had to go into the water to take people to safety," the duty manager of fire operations in Brisbane, Steve Hollands, has told the ABC.
"Plenty of scared people and small babies."
They included a woman and her daughter who had to be helped from their stranded car in a flood-hit part of Coopers Plains in Brisbane.
"The water come really quick. When we just got here the water is not too much, it wasn't too high, but because everywhere block we just tried to go in and then we got stuck there," the woman told the Nine Network.
At one point 9000 properties were without power across the southeast, but almost all of them have since been reconnected.
The weather system that produced all the rain has since moved away, leaving authorities to determine the extent of flooding across the southeast.
Seqwater will be begin releasing water from Somerset Dam into the larger Wivenhoe Dam, northwest of Brisbane, on Monday morning.
"These releases are not expected to cause the lake level in Wivenhoe Dam to increase by more than 0.5 metres in the next 24-hour period," Seqwater said.
There are no plans for any releases from Wivenhoe.
Outflows from Enoggera Dam in Brisbane have also been increased to cope with the volume of water.
NSW appears to have dodged rain bullet
NSW authorities are breathing a sigh of relief after the heavy rains expected to lash the state for a second time in a fortnight eased off quickly.
The state had been bracing for another onslaught of heavy rains and winds a fortnight after another low caused widespread flooding, but it appears to have "drifted off" down to the state's southeast.
"It looks like we have dodged a bullet in NSW," SES acting deputy commissioner Mark Morrow told the Nine Network.
Mr Morrow said the overnight heavy burst early settled down very quickly and only two rivers, the Bogan and Brunswick, went into minor flood.
"Up on the north coast we had just over 100mm of rain; certainly nothing like those conditions in Queensland," he said.
Fears that Warragamba Dam would spill have eased, but authorities are keeping a watch.
About 320 calls for help had been received by the SES across the weekend, with most coming from Tweed Heads and Wollongong.
By Sunday evening the heaviest-hit sections of Sydney experienced rainfalls around 35mm, with 39mm saturating Frenchs Forest and more predicted.
While the weather is expected to begin easing on Monday, the Transport Management Centre is warning people their morning commute at the start of the work week is likely to be slower than usual.
"Motorists and public transport passengers should also allow additional travel time," it said.
Unlike the devastating storms earlier this month, which left two men dead and a multi-million dollar clean-up bill, surging king tides were not forecast and erosion was not forecast to cause anywhere near as much damage.
