The South Australian State Emergency Service SES says a dam wall in the Adelaide Hills town of Echunga is still at risk of collapsing and residents may have to spend at least 24 hours away from their homes.
The SES said it was trying to reduce the level of water in the private dam by 1.5 metres, but it only has three medium-size pumps.
Craig Bressington, SES district officer Craig Bressington said that the steep hills on the property have made it hard to get a larger pump near the dam.
We're trying to get another larger pump — that's a trailer-mounted pump — but as you can imagine, it's down in a valley and there's no roads down there, so we're talking to the council at the moment to see how we can get it down there, he said.
He said that having a larger pump could cut the time to pump out most of the water from 24 hours to 12 hours.
The only relief we can do is via the pumps, he said.
Approximately 30 to 40 properties in Echunga could be flooded if the dam, east of the town, collapses.
A town meeting will be held this afternoon and SES members will doorknock the warning area to make sure people have left their homes.
He said that we just don't want them to be there in case it does collapse and that's going to be a bigger issue for us, and that's going to be a bigger issue for us.
More to come.