Police Commissioner Grant Stevens will sign the major emergency declaration this afternoon, ahead of the appointment of an assistant state coordinator.

Under the declaration, he will be handed powers to direct resources, evacuate communities and cut off utilities.

It comes as the state braces for peak River Murray flows of 175GL a day across the border in early December, with a “moderate likelihood” of 200GL and a “low likelihood” of 220GL likely to inundate many Riverland homes and businesses. 

Updated advice from the Department for Environment and Water suggests a second flooding peak is likely in late December or early January, with authorities warning water flows could be higher than the first peak earlier in the month.

The department states there is still a “high degree of uncertainty” about the second peak, but higher flows upstream are expected to come through the system.

“What we have seen in recent days is yet more rainfall in the eastern seaboard in critical catchment areas combined with a substantial release of water from the Hume Dam,” Premier Peter Malinauskas told reporters a short time ago.

“Those two things combined mean that we now face a genuine possibility of another peak to the river flow in late December, early January that may be in excess of what the current forecasts provide for.

“At the very least, we face the prospect of a elongated and protracted high river flow situation, which does elevate the degree of risk associated with this event.”

Malinauskas said Stevens decided to declare a major emergency ahead of the expected second peak, to ensure the state was “in the best possible position or preparedness that is available to us”.

He said SA State Emergency Service CEO Chris Beattie and state government supported the decision.

“Normally in the ordinary course of events – notwithstanding COVID – the major emergency declaration occurs once an event has commenced, typically the best example of which is a bushfire” he said.

“The Police Commissioner has decided to do this ahead of the game.”

Stevens said he believed this year was the first time in South Australia’s history when three emergency declarations were in place.

“Prior to COVID I think we only had four or five declarations under the Act, so three in one year is a new threshold,” he said.

Updated modelling received by the state emergency management council this morning shows estimates of River Murray flow remain unchanged from Thursday at 175GL a day – up from 165GL announced a week ago.

SA Power Networks estimates that 3200 homes will have their power cut.

State Cabinet will visit the Riverland for meetings with councils tomorrow, with Malinauskas expected to make an announcement on a support package and the appointment of a recovery coordinator.

The Premier said the support package to be announced tomorrow “won’t necessarily be the last iteration”, with the government “ready to provide support where we reasonably can as new information comes to hand”.

Almost eight kilometres of flood barriers and 1.5 million sandbags have been secured to help protect flood-affected River Murray communities.

A resupply of 200,000 sandbags is expected on November 24, and further deliveries of 25,000 will also be received that day with an additional 168,000 to be delivered later in the month via road freight.

The state government said it has committed $4.8 million for flood defence resources including more than $3 million for levee bank restoration works.

“We have teams of volunteers working around the clock to see to the provision of thousands upon thousands of additional sandbags to the Riverland community,” Malinauskas said.

“A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to put us in the best possible state given difficult circumstances.”

Beattie said the prospect of a second peak reinforced the uncertainty of flooding events.

He said the SES had opened five permanent sandbag stations open seven days a week across flood-affected communities.

“Across the weekend, we’ve been distributing around 11,500 bags and about 110 tonnes of sand to the communities every day,” he said.

“We’ve also been doing quite a bit of work with a range of councils to look at new, temporary levy structures to protect towns like Mannum (and) Morgan.”