Holiday-makers were evacuated from their cabins and caravans in the middle of the night at a Barossa Valley caravan park after a nearby river broke its banks.

The State Emergency Service (SES) issued an emergency flood warning for areas around the North Para River in the early hours of Friday morning.

Residents in Nuriootpa, Tanunda, Rowland Flat, Rosedale, Kingsford and the area between Nuriootpa and the Turretfield Dam were told to follow their emergency flood plans.

Staff at a caravan park in the popular tourist spot Tanunda evacuated people to a hall as water started to rise under caravans.

Estelle Bamman from New South Wales said the evacuation came as a shock.

“It’s just been raining the whole time but we didn’t expect it to flood through here”

“Not being from here … we didn’t really know which river had broken.

“We didn’t think we would have to get out of bed in the middle of the night.”

Ms Bamman’s husband John said they were not prepared for the wet and wild weather of the past 24 hours.

“When I travel again I’ll be bringing gum boots and all the wet weather gear and covering for all eventualities because we certainly were not expecting this,” he said.

Dawn Hildebrandt from Goolwa said the water rose quickly.

“I got out of the caravan and stepped out and the steps were floating away so it was above ankle deep,” she said.

Up to 70 millimetres of rain was recorded in the Gawler River catchment in the 24 hours to midnight on Thursday with another 20 millimetres expected this morning.

-ABC