The flood has been the subject of an extensive inquiry, costing more than $2 million and taking evidence in the town of Gatton for 17 days over the month of August.

The findings of the inquiry will be handed down at 9am today.

Locals told of a tide of water which appeared to rise metres within minutes, turning from the regular floods which the district was well acquainted with into a raging torrent which picked up cars, shipping containers and even houses.

It was about 3pm when the alarm went off. Residents began phoning one another warning that water was lapping at the Helidon Highway Bridge.

Soon after, the light over the town appeared to dim and, according to local service station owner Marty Wharburton, “the sun disappeared’’.

By 4.48pm when the first rescue chopper arrived above Grantham, the town was destroyed.

Those who died in Grantham that day were Dawn Margaret Radke, 56; Pauline Lesley Magner, 65; Jessica Lily-Ann Keep, 15; Garry Daniel Jibson, 12; Jocelyn Elenor Jibson, 5; Llync Clarke-Jibson, 32; Jean Gurr, 88; Bruce Marshall, 66; Reinskje Van der Werff, 86; Christopher Face, 63; Brenda Ross, 56; and Joshua Ross, 25.

Others survived, but the impact of the great Grantham flood continues. These are their stories:

FRANK KING

Frank King was deeply familiar with Grantham floods. After decades of living in the town and working as a farmer in the surrounding Lockyer Valley, he knew the landscape and the normal flow of flood waters. On the afternoon of January 10, Frank was with his son John, an Australian Army Officer who has served overseas. Both men had decided to move their cars to upper ground and were walking towards the vehicles casually, with John filming the event on his phone.

Suddenly the normal trajectory on the flood path took a wild turn, and John who moments before was contemplating driving his car out of flood waters was on the roof of the vehicle. Mr King, then aged 66, was swept alongside his son and John grabbed him by the arm. Frank knew John would soon have to let go if John was to save himself. “It was a life-and-death struggle, and time seemed to stand still,’’ Mr King said. “I was going to have to tell him to let go of my arm.’’ John lost his footing and was swept away while Frank found refuge in a tree as the waters raged around him for more than an hour, tearing the clothes from his body. He was reunited with John later that night at the family home. Frank still suffers physical pain from the ordeal but is trying to put the emotional trauma behind him.

MARTY WHARBURTON

It’s the people he couldn’t help who haunt Marty Wharburton most. The amiable owner of the local service station at Grantham actually appeared to enjoy the floods that were part of the town’s folklore. “We used to put a few chairs out and even put a few fishing lines in the water,’’ he said. “It was a bit of a social occasion.’’ That all changed on the afternoon of January 10 when Marty noted the water lapping a little too high for comfort. By 3.45 p.m. Marty knew he was experiencing something rare, and deeply terrifying. “Everything just went black as if the sun had disappeared,’’ he recalls. Marty was able to film some of the defining footage of the floods. But it was the people he could not help that still haunts him most. Two people on top of a car floated down Anzac Avenue asking for help before disappearing with the car. One middle-aged, well-dressed man stuck in his car was also asking for help. “You would give anything to help them but there was nothing to be done,” Marty said. He was eventually escorted away from the roof of his servo by a swift water team and up to high ground. He made his way towards the school where a temporary evacuation centre was set up. He still suffers the emotional fallout from the experience. For months he rarely went outside his home and refused to answer the phone.

KEN AND FRAN ARNDT

No one knows the Grantham district like Ken Ardnt. He has been cutting timber in the region since just after World War II. On the afternoon of the January 10, he and wife Fran were watching the rising flood with moderate concern, but well aware they would be safe in their home just outside Grantham on the road toward Helidon. About 3.30 pm Fran received a call from her daughter living nearby whose house had a higher vantage point. As Fran told the inquiry, her daughter advised her in no uncertain terms: “Get the f--- out of there now!’’

The couple raced for their HiLux ute and sped from the torrent, only to be slammed by an incoming wave that engulfed the ute and left them clinging to a tree for nearly three hours, both certain “our time had come’’. “It just picked us up like a cork,’’ Fran says of the tsunami. The couple, who were in their 60s, said their final goodbyes to one another, but were eventually rescued by a chopper. Their story has been told across Europe in real-life rescue dramas that obtained the footage of their ordeal.

DANNY McGUIRE

Danny bore one of the highest personal costs of the floods which took away his wife, Llync, 31, daughter Jocelyn, 5, and eldest son Garry, 12. The rural fire fighter was helping others to safety but had got his own family into the truck and was trying to escape the torrent when it overwhelmed him. Danny was swept from his truck just moments after putting son Zach, aged seven, into the safety of a tree, allowing the boy to survive the ordeal. Danny told the flood inquiry the wall of water was enormous. “It went right over the truck and started throwing the truck around and next minute I knew the truck actually got spun around,” he said. “I made about six triple-0 calls, I had kids screaming and the missus screaming.” Danny still works in emergency services, and drives a ute well known in the district as a mobile memorial to his family. The names of his loved one are engraved into the bull bar and photographs adorn the bonnet. Locals say he is coping, but has his “up and down days.’’

DAREN PARSONS

Rescue chopper crewman Daren Parsons was among the hundreds of heroes who put aside their own concerns for personal safety and went to help others during the Grantham floods.

Daren, pilot Mark Kempton and fellow crewman Mark Turner from Emergency Management Queensland’s rescue helicopter pulled 28 people from the raging torrents which tore through Grantham and surrounding areas.

Elderly people, young people, an expectant mum and even a fortunate black cat were winched from trees and rooftops to safety. Amid lightning strikes and torrential rain the chopper crew continued their work, while Daren worked on even as he tore a knee ligament while engaged in dramatic rescues. He was presented with the Group Bravery Citation at Government House in September 2013.