Aerial photos have shown the devastating extent of flooding in South Australia, where a main supply road remains cut off.
Flyover images taken on Thursday show waters in Glendambo, near the Stuart Highway, have completely covered the surface.
A widespread trail of destruction extended off into the distance, caused by days of torrential rain.
The struts of a bi-directional hazard marker sign are almost completely immersed with the flood line nearly reaching the bottom of the black and white road sign.
Despite the disastrous scenes, Premier Steven Marshall, who toured the affected areas of Port Augusta and Glendambo, said floodwaters across parts of the state had already begun to subside.
He said there was a sense of “relief” when rain forecast to again hit the region did not fall as hard as predicted.
The Bureau of Meteorology earlier this week predicted wet weather into Wednesday but has since advised no “significant” rainfall was recorded in the 24 hours before 9am on Thursday.
“No further rainfall of significance is expected for at least the next few days,” it said.
With floodwaters starting to recede, Mr Marshall said an “enormous” amount of work needed to be done.
Parts of the Stuart Highway — which connects outback SA and continues up to Darwin in the Northern Territory — were yesterday submerged under about 450mm of rain but has since receded to about 300mm.
That road is used to deliver supplies to the NT and its closure for more than a week has caused food supply issues for the Top End and regional towns in SA.
Deliveries to the NT have since been re-routed through Queensland, but the Sunshine State will soon be hit with wild weather of its own.
SA authorities still need to assess the damage and repair the road so it's unclear when it will reopen.
“This is priority number one — being able to get that water off the (Stuart Highway), assess the damage and get that road back and operation as quickly as possible,” the Premier said.
“We are concerned about the extreme forecast for Queensland, which could cut that off, so we're very keen to establish the Stuart Highway as quickly as possible.
“We now have an outlook for a couple of weeks of much better weather.
“It's going to be drier and good wind that will help with the evaporation and dissipation of flood waters so we can get on with the important recovery work.”
There have been nine airdrops of supplies into Coober Pedy and two more are scheduled for Thursday.
Mr Marshall believed the drops addressed food security problems in the opal mining town.
He said the Royal Australian Air Force had evacuated some people who were stranded or needed to get to Adelaide for urgent medical appointments.
Those in the APY Lands have also had medical supplies chartered into the area and food delivered via Alice Springs.
