Chris Walker stayed holed up in his Lewis Avenue unit during the flooding emergency, while his next-door neighbour Jenny Taylor fled on Saturday night, returning for the first time about lunchtime yesterday.

“I’m a very nervy person and I’ve got a little dog; I fled to the top side of town,” Ms Taylor said.

“Being away you feel sick with worry for the people who are staying and looking after it.”

Mr Walker praised the SES for bringing sandbags to help keep the floodwaters at bay.

“I was getting phonecalls and text messages telling me to clear out,” he said.

“But I said I’d sit on the kitchen table; once it comes up to the kitchen table, then I’ll move.

“What’s the use in going away and worrying if your house is under water?”

The water that had crossed Lewis Avenue and kept the homes isolated quickly dissipated yesterday morning.

But Mr Walker said he didn’t believe the threat was over yet.

“The sandbags are staying because I don’t like what’s going to happen on the weekend; they’re talking about another 50 millimetres, and we’ve got all that snow coming off the mountains,” he said.