Residents remain on alert with Mt Emu Creek still high yesterday and more rain predicted later this week. On Sunday, residents were evacuated to the town's football oval as the swollen creek threatened low-lying homes and businesses along the Glenelg Highway.

State Emergency Services and Country Fire Authority brigade members and volunteers set up sandbag walls in front of businesses.

But water began rising from stormwater drains behind the wall. The water began to recede about 10pm.

Foodworks owner Russell Adams praised the work of volunteers who set up the wall.

He said he had not seen a flood like it in 20 years in the town.

Skipton Hotel owner Josh Nixon said despite the sandbags, the water had backed up through stormwater drains along the main street.

Water had also seeped through floorboards in the pub cellar. He said he was among about 15 people who started the sandbagging effort on Sunday. But passers-by and other residents swelled that number to a couple of hundred people later in the evening. Water reached the back doorstep

of Laura and Ben Osbourne's home.

Only sandbags and a pump saved the Cleveland Street house they moved into last year from the flood.

"We're very lucky. The water was about a foot high on the sandbags," Ms Osbourne said. "We had about 30 to 40 people turn up to sandbag. It just happened very, very quickly."

Member for Ripon Joe Helper visited residents yesterday.