Residents living near the Murray River in South Australia are in a race against time as floodwater rapidly moves downstream and threatens to inundate homes and livelihoods.
Authorities are warning there will now be two flood peaks, with 175 gigalitres a day expected for the first in early December and 185GL a day a few weeks later.
Residents in multiple riverside towns are preparing by building levees and moving their valuables to higher ground.
Kingston On Murray
A large levee is being constructed by the council to protect multiple homes from inundation in the town of Kingston On Murray.
But the local caravan park will miss out on this protection.
Park owner Geoff Calvert is building a large levee on the bank of his caravan park, which will cost about $250,000.
About 2 hectares of his unpowered campground have already been inundated, but Mr Calvert and his wife Barb are trying to protect the powered sites and save the homes of nine permanent residents living in caravans at the site.
A water pump shed sits with sandbags stacked around it surrounded by water in the park — an asset Mr Calvert must protect.
"I've got to get all that out, disconnect it and seal it up before that goes under, because there's a three-phase power cable that runs underneath the levee bank [from the water pump]," Mr Calvert said.
"So if that's not all disconnected and sealed then the water will come up through the power cables and into the park through the pressure."
Mr and Ms Calvert are heartened by the volunteers offering their time, including retired excavator driver Terry Mowbray, who travels to the park every day from Cobdogla.
"We're pushing it but we'll give it a good shot, the blokes here are really good, Geoff and Barb, they are just fantastic and they deserve to bloody beat this," Mr Mowbray said.
"Would be good to get a bit more assistance from the local government or someone, I mean poor Geoff's a ratepayer, I feel for him.
"I've never known the bloke before but he's a top bloke and his wife Barb, but they need help."
Gurra Gurra
Linley Schulz, a resident in the small town of Gurra Gurra, between Berri and Lyrup, has built what he describes as a flood fence surrounded by sandbags around his house.
Water is within metres of his home and it has already inundated one of his vineyards.
"It's been quite consistently coming up about 5 centimetres a day the last few days," Mr Schulz said.
"We built this fence around the property. I feel pretty confident we can keep out a 1974 flood level not a problem at all.
"But it looks like we might be dealing with something more than that."
Mr Schulz said he would park a tinny near his flood fence and park his car across the road on higher ground when water levels rose.
He will have to drive his boat to his car and use roads still accessible to get supplies until the water recedes.
Mannum
Trudy Fischer took over Mannum Oldwares, a local antique shop on Randell Road, about seven months ago.
"Honestly I'm glad I'm doing it and not the old owners because they're able to retire and not worry about having the stress of this," Ms Fischer said.
The shop is located within the old butter factory and will not be protected by the levee, which will be built on the main street nearby.
"We're under a lot of pressure, but I'm grateful we've got time because I know a lot of the communities up river haven't had the time that we've had," Ms Fischer said.
She is moving all her antiques to higher ground.
"I could not have done this on my own and I'm just so grateful for everyone's help, because I probably would have just shut the doors if I was by myself."
Mick Janz lives nearby. He will move his belongings out of his home and expects to be inundated without extensive sandbagging.
"We're going under, that's the end of that, unless you want to [sand]bag right out until the levee," he said.
"I'll be moving out [for], well, it sounds like three months until we see it tide off.
"I've got one place lined up ... so hopefully."
Paisley
The owners of the Blanchetown Caravan Park at Paisley have stopped taking bookings because they are not sure when the power will be switched off.
Rick Gauci lives next door on a house propped up by 3m-high stilts.
He still believes his home may flood.
"I'm expecting it to get pretty close to coming to the top of the balcony there, that's almost 3m in the air ... I am in a bit of a hollow there, low land," Mr Gauci said.
"Most of my assets are up high. I've still got pumps and a hot water service down there."
Water has been moving closer to his property each day.
"It's just slowly creeping up but now it's starting to ramp-up ... it's probably about a foot [of water] a day."
No levee will be built on River Drive, the road between Mr Gauci's home and the river.
"They're building levee banks down at Waikerie ... but we're down the bottom end here and we're the last to get anything," Mr Gauci said.
"It's the most neglected area of the council."
