What was the title of a childrens book about animals that lived in a town that flooded and they used sandbags.

This is from my youth (1980s) but may have been written much earlier. It was illustrated and the animals faced a great rain storm that flooded their town. They used sandbags to keep the river from overflowing. I think there was a crocodile or alligator that was like a villan, but not really that bad, and it got caught in the flood at the end. I believe the other animals felt sorry for it and tried to help it out.