Town braces for disaster as flood spreads from Murray

Thousands of SA residents spent Christmas bracing for the swollen Murray river to rise and a small community was cut off by flooding.

South Australian residents in a town near the Victorian border spent Christmas Day anxiously waiting for the swollen Murray river to rise, while a small community further downstream was completely isolated as the state’s flooding drama continued.

Flood levels at Renmark, a town located about 250km northeast of Adelaide, were expected to peak on Sunday or on Boxing Day Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Dean Narramore said.

“(The water is) peaking now around Renmark. (It will) move downstream in the coming days and weeks,” he said.

“The river is taking a long time to fall. Even though the peak has passed (around Wentworth upstream in NSW and Mildura in Victoria) we still have very high water levels and days, if not weeks, after the peak has passed.

“Luckily no big, heavy rainfall (is) expected. It will be hot and dry and maybe just isolated storms on Wednesday.”

On Sunday, a spokesman for South Australia’s State Emergency Service reported 1100 properties had been inundated by the floods with about 4000 in total expected to be flooded. The SES responded to nine calls for help on Christmas Day but did not carry out any flood rescues, the spokesman said.

A community near Mannum, Bolto – about 200km southwest of Renmark, was told it was too late to leave on Sunday at 4pm and was isolated by flood waters.

The alert issued by the SES reported a major road – Hunter Rd near Haythorpe Reserve – was closed due to significant damage.

“The Bolto shack community is now isolated. If you are in this area you can no longer leave by this road,” the alert read. “It is now unsafe to evacuate the area.”

After they spent weeks sandbagging their properties in the lead-up to Christmas, residents at Renmark waited anxiously on Sunday for the river to peak.

Downstream of Renmark posted photos and video to social media on Christmas Day and Eve showed water creeping up driveways and flooding playgrounds and reserves.

One photo shared on Sunday showed picnic tables and a barbecue at the Thiele Reserve in Murray Bridge flooded, while another shot shared the day before at the Sturt Reserve in Murray Bridge also surrounded by water where footpaths could previously be walked on.

In another image, the door of a suburban garage buckled and a basketball hoop keeled over at a property surrounded by flood water on Christmas Eve at Walker Flat, about 175km southwest of Renmark.

South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas on Saturday said it was “good news” flood waters are expected to peak at the 190GL level per day rather than at 200GL.

“It means less homes being inundated. It means less people being displaced but it still does mean a substantial body of water at a level that we haven’t seen in our state for a long, long time,” he said.

“The peak of the river flows going through Renmark will occur at some point in the next 48 to 72 hours. That peak will be just above the 1931 flood level that was experienced close to a century ago.”

The Premier said authorities have doorknocked close to 5000 peoples’ homes and said a $50m relief package was ready to be rolled out.

He said 3260 homes had been disconnected from power at 4am on Saturday, and that number was expected to increase gradually.

Floodwaters are expected to reach Mannum on January 7 in about a fortnight.

#FLOOD Emergency Warning Shelter in Place issued for Bolto. Significant flooding is expected to impact in this area which will threaten your safety. It is now unsafe to evacuate the area. More info: https://t.co/T6uTIKnPfE ID:453/1

— SASES (@SA_SES) December 25, 2022