As 20 properties were put under threat in Wallace Drive yesterday, many sought shelter elsewhere.

Mustafa Maggs’ home, at the intersection with Harris Lane, was one of the worst affected when the river peaked at 4.13 metres early yesterday.

“Water’s a metre high inside the house,” Mr Maggs said last night from a Bright motel, where his family took refuge for the second night in a row.

“We’ve got no power, no water, no toilets running.

“Our septic tanks are underground and they’ve overflowed ... there’s raw sewage.

“Our carpet’s lifted up off the ground ... the whole house is just full of mud.

“It’s not good; I just don’t know how to go around it (the clean-up) — we’ll just have to do things pretty slowly, inch by inch.”

Mr Maggs said the family had chosen to evacuate on Saturday night when the water was 30 centimetres high.

They had been prepared for the deluge, moving most belongings to the second storey, and sand bagging the ground floor.

But the precautions were not enough.

“I came back today to have a look and the water had doubled,” Mr Maggs said.

“The street’s a river.

“I’ve got a four-wheel-drive and it wouldn’t go through the water; the water was up to the door handles.”

At the other end of Wallace Drive, Christine Tesoriero cursed a case of bad timing.

She and her partner David own two homes in the street, one on higher ground.

They had spent the past four weeks moving their belongings into the lower house to renovate the other property.

“We’ve got to move everything out of the low house and put it in the high house again,” Miss Tesoriero said after the home got 45 centimetres of water through it.

“The high house is untouched.”

Miss Tesoriero and her partner spent the past two nights with friends.

“We’re going to have to get a new bed,” she said.

“A few things will need to be replaced — the washing machine, the oven, the whole kitchen and laundry.

“It’s sad — I’ve been a bit of teary.

“But I’m all right now ... just accepting it, I guess.

“We knew it was a flood zone. We knew it was going to happen eventually.”