It was a scene of sorrow.
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Along Campaspe Esplanade, floodwaters from the Campaspe River had risen on Sunday, leaving homes inundated and surrounded.
The river in Echuca peaked at 96.25m (AHD) late on Sunday afternoon, a higher level than initially forecast and above the levels recorded in January 2011.
The water had already left a trail of destruction in its wake in Rochester, and now it had hit Echuca.
A sandbag wall had been built down the middle of Campaspe Esplanade to try and hold back the impending torrent, but it was not enough.
Water stormed through over Ogilvie Ave, flooding the area behind the wall and gushing into yards and homes.
Residents in the area had worked for days to protect their homes, but the floodwaters got in regardless. The water was a behemoth that could not be denied.
On Sunday evening, Dwaine Mckay waded from his home through waist-deep water to survey the scene and inspect the sandbag wall.
He lives on McBride Place, just off Campaspe Esplanade, and he spoke about how he and his neighbours worked all through the night, fighting to keep the floodwaters at bay.
“We have been getting as many sandbags as we can,” Mr Mckay said.
“In the middle of the night we lost a wall. Thankfully, one of the guys just happened to be walking over there when it was going down and we were able to pop it back up.
“We got leftover sandbags from one house and dug out their sandpit. We got other spare bags from other houses so we could make it stronger because the water was coming through, it wasn’t going to be held back.”
At one point, it looked like they had done enough to stop the water. But then the deluge came.
“We worked all night and we thought that we had done it,” Mr Mckay said.
“In the morning just as the sun came up, that is when it (the water) came over Ogilvie Ave and it was pretty much all over.”
Before the surge came through, there was less than an inch of water on the non-river side of the sandbag wall. But Mr Mckay said within 15 minutes of the torrent hitting, it had reached waist height.
“It went through like a freight train,” he said.
“Just to see that water coming through from Ogilvie Ave was bloody devastating. We worked our a***s off and that pretty much broke us all. We worked so hard to keep it up.”
At that point, he said emergency crews told them there was nothing else they could do. Mr Mckay told his neighbour and his wife it was time to leave.
Thankfully, his house was okay.
Mr Mckay bought the property off his grandparents and said floodwater had never gotten inside. This time, water got into his yard, but fortunately not inside.
He was one of the lucky ones.
Other houses nearby had been inundated. Water not only surrounded the homes, but had breached sandbags and got inside as well.
Emergency crews were using pumps to pump the water back over the wall, but the damage had been done.
Mr Mckay said it was hard to comprehend the destruction around him and what might still be to come.
With the Murray River expected to peak in the coming days, there are fears that water could be forced back up the Campaspe River, flooding properties once again — potentially at an even higher level.
“My guts are in knots. You want to blink and open your eyes and all the water to be gone, but it is not going to happen,” Mr Mckay said.
“We just have to roll with it and wait and see what Mother Nature is going to do to us. You can direct it, but you can’t stop it.
“I’m sh** scared because we don’t know what is coming.
“The only thing we can do is just wait for what is going to happen and hopefully it is not going to be as bad as they say it will be.“
The walls of sandbags down Campaspe Esplanade and across the river on McKenzie St and Eyre St were a line of defence that wasn’t there during the 2011 floods, and Mr Mckay said they undoubtedly made a difference.
“We would be stuffed without it. All of these houses would be well under, well under,” he said.
“You could add another 50cm though here, easy. It would be through the houses and be absolute devastation.”
With a huge mass of water literally on their doorsteps, Mr Mckay could not speak highly enough of the work done by residents, volunteers and emergency services to help protect the neighbourhood.
Before the Campaspe River burst its banks, Mr Mckay had spent hours at the sandbagging station at Kerferd St in Echuca alongside dozens of others helping people in the community prepare.
“This is Echuca,” he said.
“I was born and bred here. This is what Echuca is, this is what we do. When it hits the fan, we get together and we get it fixed. Echuca has always been a tight community.
“The army and the CFA guys have done an awesome job. If they didn’t put this extra backing up, the wall would be gone.
“If you don’t have neighbours like these people, we wouldn’t have got it done.”
Other residents shared their gratitude as well.
A week ago, one house had been adorned with Halloween decorations. Now, with those ornaments removed, a banner thanking volunteers hung in its place.
‘Thank you!’ it read in big, bold letters.