When Charlea Dowd parked her car on Friday night, she never imagined the destruction she'd wake up to on Saturday morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The 23-year-old from Woonona is among the many Illawarra residents dealing with insurers after her white Mazda 3 was not only submerged in flood water, but also ended up with its nose to the ground and on top of the bonnet of an orange ute on Nicholson Road, Woonona.
Her car was one of eight parked next to Collins Creek outside Woonona High School, which ended up in the pile-up as 100mm of rain fell in just an hour.
The street is known for flooding, but Ms Dowd said when she left the car there overnight, she never expected it to end in carnage.
"The fact that the water is so powerful it piled all those cars on top of each other. It would have been frightening to be in the car when it happened. You would have been trapped in there," she said.
Ms Dowd, who works in the head office at Bears Auto Group, usually parks her car at her nearby residence, but her partner had bagged her usual spot earlier in the day.
When she heard the rain on Saturday morning, the pair went down to check on the creek. She found her car submerged. Just a few minutes later, the strength of the water had compressed the line of vehicles into a pile-up.
"It just happened so quickly. All those cars just got piled up on top of each other."
Ms Dowd has been dealing with her insurance provider, Youi, and expects the car will now be written off. In the meantime, she said she was fortunate enough to have borrowed a courtesy car from work.
Woonona wasn't the only place where cars flooded. In Balgownie's Terrell Place, residents said around 15 cars needed to be dug out from under mud and debris.
Cars were seen floating down the M1 northbound at the ramp to the University of Wollongong, and mud-covered cars were spotted at Arrow Street, Figtree.
Cleaning up tips
On Monday, April 8, Sammy Singh, the head detailer at Washworks in Wollongong, was busy cleaning up a white seven-seater that had been flooded over the weekend.
He said he was expecting a busy week, with many residents contacting them to get their cars cleaned.
Mr Singh has been a car cleaner in Australia for 14 years and explained that most flood-damaged cars can be dried out.
He said anyone needing to dry out their car would need a carpet cleaner to extract the water and then should leave their doors open to dry out the carpets.
"So you have first take the water out and give it a wash, like a deep clean, all the carpet and the mat, and then give it a good steam and leave it like at least two hours. You need to get some heat on it so leave the doors open if it's a nice and sunny day outside and the car will dry," he explained.
He added that if flood water had entered the seats, the detailer would usually take most of the day to finish the job, costing around $600.
Troy Davies owner of Illawarra Mobile Car Cleaning said he'd received calls from residents with flood-damaged cars over the weekend.
He said that as long as people can get the water removed from the car, they will dry out.
"Generally, they need to have the water extracted and then get the weather to dry it out. If the water hasn't gone all the way over the car, then it tends not to be too dirty," he said.
Gayle Tomlinson
Editor of the Illawarra Mercury. Scottish but fell in love with Dharawal Land. Send us your feedback and questions. Subscribe so we can continue to speak up for the Illawarra.
Editor of the Illawarra Mercury. Scottish but fell in love with Dharawal Land. Send us your feedback and questions. Subscribe so we can continue to speak up for the Illawarra.
