Nelson residents are anxious for promised flood protection work to get underway before their homes are flooded again.
The region is expecting to get around $9 million from the Government's $200 million flood resilience fund announced at last week's Budget.
When Nelson was hit with more than a metre of rain in just three days, the Maitai River was unable to cope and many parts of its stopbanks overflowed.
Hundreds of people were evacuated, such as the Bygate family in Nile Street.
Tim Bygate said it's changed their mindset when bad weather hits.
"Every time it rains now we get nervous, we get anxious. We think 'when do we shift stuff?'," said Bygate.
A low point in the nearby stopbank was to blame, and the council is now going to build it higher as part of a $15 million flood resilience project.
The project is expected to receive $9m from the Government, which will be topped up with $6m from the council.
"You'll never get 100 percent protection, but it'll enable us to make these areas a lot less prone to flooding. It's about reducing risk - many of these areas will flood in a 1-in-10-year event, it allows us to extend that out to a 1-in-100-year event," said Nelson's Mayor Nick Smith.
The work will include upgrading two culverts, raising flood walls, and upgrading or realigning parts of the Maitai River's stopbanks near Nile Street.
"I understand they are in fact bleeding money re the flood recovery, so the funding is going to be great. It's going to be good for the council, it's going to be good for the residents," said Bygate.
Although the council's river engineer Toby Kay told Newshub that it's not easy to protect all residents.
"One of our main challenges is the space we have between the river and private property, and trying to find ways of defending private property or reducing the flood risk to them," he said.
The work will take years as there's still a design, engagement and consenting processing to work through.
"We're working through the solutions now and really trying to address the issues," said Kay.
"This is the practical work that is required around climate change, you can spend millions on bureaucrats trying to study the effects, I'm really keen on doing some of the practical work that will make our community more resilient," said Smith.
