THE awful extent of the 1918 cyclone wasn't fully realised by the residents of Mackay until reports began to flow in that many lives had been lost.

As the toll mounted, even those who had lost their homes and possessions, realised they should be thankful to have escaped with their lives.

Days after the cyclone struck The Daily Mercury, in a bid to allay speculation, published heart-rending information about those who had died and the tragic circumstances in which they'd lost their lives.

Most poignant was confirmation that many members of some families, including small children, had been lost.

In all 30 people perished in the 1918 cyclone and a memorial plaque bearing their names now stands on the Pioneer River bank in tribute.

Hardest hit was the Welch family. Sarah, 38 and her five children Elizabeth, Rose, Mabel, Lucy and Charles all drowned and headstones in Mackay Cemetery have been erected in their memory.

Brothers Tom and Edwin 'Ted' Welch, an older sister, Emily 'Dolly', who was working in Brisbane, and their father Peter survived.

Peter Welch had struggled to guide them to the safety of a neighbour's house after their own in had collapsed under the force of wind and water. They were living in what was then part of George St but is named Evan St, adjacent to the intersection with Stevenson St.

Tom had been away in Sarina but Ted, then just seven years old, lived through the ordeal. On the 75th anniversary of the cyclone, he recalled the memories in an interview with Terry Hayes.

The last words he heard his mother speak were "Rosie's gone”, an anguished cry that told him his sister, Rose, 9, had been carried away by the water.

Ted recounted that he had a clear memory of his father having loaded the family onto part of a wall of the house, using it as a raft and hoping to float them out of danger.

His sister Elizabeth decided to attempt to swim to a nearby house but the flood was too strong. Then Rose was lost and his next recollection was of himself and his father safe at the Nimmo's house, at the corner of Juliet and Stevenson streets.

Frank Shanks also related his family tragedy to Terry Hayes on the 75th anniversary of the cyclone.

As a two-year-old Mr Shanks was plucked from the floodwater by his uncle, but an infant brother, nine-month-old Cyril, an aunt, Alice Amelia Shanks, and two cousins, John Joseph Shanks, 3, and Alice Shanks, 7 months, were drowned. Mr Shanks' father had been knocked unconscious by flying timber and was also rescued from the water.

Members of the Welch family, along with other descendants of families affected by the 1918 cyclone, will gather today for the launch of Mackay Regional Council's 1918 Cyclone Centenary Exhibition at the Jubilee Centre.