"The car was literally washed against the fence sideways, it's a four-wheel drive," Ms Worlsey said, taking a break from the clean-up, mud staining her black T-shirt.

"The water's gone up to the dash and just dragged it away.

"We were standing on the veranda and watching deer and kangaroos and everything float by."

Clarke Creek State School, which abuts the principal's residence, is one of Queensland's smallest schools - and also has the upsetting honour of being the state's most damaged due to Cyclone Debbie and her aftermath.

The tiny school is about two-and-a-half hours' drive south of Mackay, with 11 students enrolled, and despite being inundated on Wednesday last week, help from outside only arrived in recent days.

The putrid carpets, so pungent they made workers gag, were being ripped up and carted away by QBuild workers as Fairfax Media visited on Wednesday.

Telstra had arrived a day earlier to fix a tower, finally allowing residents to use mobile phones again.

Ms Worsley is also grateful to the workers who removed the dead kangaroos, which were stuck up in trees. They had started to smell.

Ms Worsley said her husband Bill went outside on Wednesday afternoon last week as waters began to rise after a large tree blocked their house, and tried to see if they could move their car to higher ground, when a wall of water rushed at him.

"The first wall [of water] came from behind us, the creeks had blown their banks.

"The first little wall hit him and steadily rose."

They could then only wait on the verandah of the house and watch the water rise up their steps as the Clarke Creek school, only a stone's throw away, was flooded.

In addition to the damage to the school, Ms Worsley also lost possessions, which were stored under her house.

"But we're alive and... as soon as I heard all the families were all well, we took another breath."

The school's 11 students are in years Prep to Year 6 and mostly come from families in the farming industry in the surrounding area. The school also caters for a playgroup.

Ms Worsley said the community of about 170 people was doing it tough, with many facing huge costs to repair fences, come to grips with the damage, and needing to find lost cattle.

But people were still determined to help each other and their school.

"Some of the bigger stations, they have their own helicopters for mustering," she said.

"The first morning people were coming in and making sure we were safe.

"Other helicopter pilots have been taking people around to find their horses and other animals, just dropping supplies in, it's been incredible.

"This community has always been a strong one, but wow. Absolutely wow.

"They're not, 'it's all over' kind of people, it's like, 'get on with things'."

Police Minister Mark Ryan visited the school on Wednesday and promised no community would be left behind.

"We wanted to make sure no one felt isolated, no one felt left behind," he said.

"It's important for us to not only get out to the major regional centres, but those little towns as well to make sure that all those communities not only feel like the government is there for them but have the opportunity to raise any issues which might help with their recovery following the disaster."

Mr Ryan said seeing the damage and hearing the stories was "confronting".

In one glimmer of good news, the school's library books were saved after a gap in the floor between two joined-together buildings opened due to the force of the water underneath.

It meant the water emptied away, rather than pooling inside the library.

The region is threaded with creeks, which swelled furiously and washed away bridges into the area, including causing massive damage to the bridge over nearby Clive Creek.

A temporary road to Clarke Creek State School opened on Tuesday, allowing crews of workers - who Ms Worsley described as "fabulous" - to assess the damage and address urgent issues, such as plumbing and electrical repairs.

Before that, the government was only able to do aerial surveys.

Mr Ryan said crews arrived to help the school as quickly as they could.

"Obviously there's significant damage to the road infrastructure all over Queensland, and the first priority was always to gain access to areas to make sure that we could get emergency relief through to areas so I understand that was the priority, but now the priority is recovery," he said.

On Wednesday, road crews were engaged in the arduous task of repairing the damage to roads and bridges, swatting away swarms of irritating flying midges.

Despite the massive job ahead, Ms Worsley said she was determined the school would be open for day one of term two, and hoped to organise counsellors for the students.

Education Minister Kate Jones said staff had identified more than 700 jobs to be completed at about 300 schools across Queensland following the severe weather.

"Clean-up will be in the millions of dollars," she said.

"We're getting on with the job of repairing our schools and we're aiming to have every school open for term two after the Easter holidays."

But the destruction is not yet over for Queensland, with the Fitzroy River due to peak at 9 metres in Rockhampton on Thursday, and already rising fast on Wednesday afternoon.