Psychiatry registrar Dr Sean Kempster and his friends thought their monthly dinner club was safe enough, two days after Cyclone Jasper tore through Queensland.

The group of 12 — including five other psychiatry registrars and an RMO — figured the worst was over when they gathered at his house in northern Cairns.

“We were not realising, and not being warned, that the tropical low was going to dump record amounts of rain and cause widespread flooding after that,” Dr Kempster said.

“On the evening that it was taking place, the rains were very heavy and relentless.”