Waterski shop owner Kylie Rochow had been banking on bumper summer sales, in what she expected to be her biggest season since the start of the pandemic.
But with her business, Deja Vu, metres from the Murray River at Mannum, South Australia, she's now frantically trying to sell as much stock as she can before floodwaters hit.
"We have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock in here at the moment that obviously gets paid for … during our season, which we're not going to have now," Ms Rochow told 7.30.
"Everybody's so glad that they're not under [COVID-19] restrictions anymore and just for this to happen … I can't believe it."
South Australia is bracing for what could be its worst floods in up to 70 years. Up to 4,000 properties could be inundated, including holiday shacks, and more than 1,000 occupied homes could flood.
"The predictions just get worse every time," Ms Rochow said.
Ms Rochow is unlucky. Had her shop been on the other side of Mannum's main street, it could be protected by an emergency levee being built by the local council.
"It's not going to do anything to protect us at all. If it was behind us, yes, but it's in front of us," she said.
"We do feel like we've kind of been left on our own here to just deal with it.
"This shop means everything to me, because it's my baby. I have invested a lot of time and effort into it."
Mid Murray Council Mayor Simone Bailey said there was not enough room between the river and the back of Ms Rochow's business to build the levee.
"I can definitely understand why the property owners and businesses behind the levee will be upset," she said.
"We've had an external engineer, an internal engineer and two government departments look at it so we've gone with what we believe is the best option."
Twelve businesses and homes in Mannum will not be protected by the levee, including Trudy Fischer's antique and bric-a-brac shop.
"I'm not in a position to fight because I have got a massive shop, I need to pack up. I'm just going to do what I can do, and hope for the best," Ms Fischer told 7.30.
The affected businesses will be forced to shut indefinitely after this weekend to make way for the levee's construction. Ms Rochow will put what she can not sell into storage but does not know how she will make ends meet until her shop can re-open.
"Income over the next few months will absolutely be non-existent, there will be nothing. So we will be relying obviously on refinancing to get us through the next few months," she said.
"We'll come back after this but you know, it's going to be definitely difficult."
'An immense amount of water'
South Australia's Emergency Services Minister Joe Szakacs said a $51 million assistance package would help impacted property owners and businesses, like Ms Rochow's waterski shop and the antique and bric-a-brac shop owned by Ms Fischer.
"There's no comfort that I can give, other than to give my absolute assurance that the government stands with them," he said.
The floodwaters are expected to peak twice, with the first peak to hit within days. But accurately predicting the volume of water coming from interstate is challenging because a number of rivers flow into the Murray.
"As we stand here, we see about two Olympic swimming pools coming past every second. It's an immense amount of water," Mr Szakacs said.
"We're predicting between 175 gigalitres at a high probability, a second peak in late December of 185 gigalitres and upwards of around 200 gigalitres [as] a lower probability."
Two hours upstream from Mannum, SES volunteer Trevor Mayfield and his colleagues are preparing for the natural disaster that is creeping towards them.
"If we're sitting around having Christmas lunch and the pager goes off, I have no doubt that we'll have nearly the whole crew to come in and deal with whatever the situation may be, whether it's flood-related or not," he said.
Mr Mayfield has been with the Berri SES unit for five years.
"I know of two people who potentially could run into trouble and they've decided to evacuate," he told 7.30.
"I've never seen [the river] this high before and so for me, personally, it's a real eye-opener."
Farmers nervous
The impact of the floodwaters is expected to be felt for months.
Not only is it a huge blow for tourism operators but in the Riverland, a region renowned for fruits and nuts, growers like Merridy Crook are feeling nervous.
Her family grows pistachios.
"Pistachios are a desert plant, they don't like lots of water … they'll be sitting soaking in water for potentially weeks and weeks on end," she said.
"They're about $30 for the little trees and so we've got hundreds of trees in these rows that we're potentially going to lose."
Growers are facing the added threat they may not be able to irrigate crops that are not flooded because power may be switched off to water pumps on the river.
"Power and water simply don't mix," Mr Szakacs told 7.30.
"We're seeing to date around 700 properties that have been disconnected by the SA Power Networks, the private operator of our system here in South Australia, and we're likely to see about another 650 to 700 disconnected."
Mr Szakacs conceded "crops could die".
"The best-case scenario here is that we find bespoke solutions to support growers," he said.
The state government is offering grants for power generators but Ms Crook said there were practical difficulties.
"We're only getting 48 hours' notice to get the electricity turned off before we can apply for a grant: it's not going to happen, there'd be too much red tape," she said.
But Ms Crook's father Phil Sims is not panicking. He was 14 when the state's worst flood hit the Riverland in 1956.
"I've got some fantastic images of those days," he said.
"It's going to be interesting to find out when we get into my pistachios here to see how they survived with wet feet for two or three months."
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