It happened almost 20 years ago but Victoria Westley-Wise still vividly remembers the day she almost died after driving through floodwaters.
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It had been raining heavily for weeks on end and was pouring on August 17, 1998 when Dr Westley-Wise veered from her usual route and chose to drive through Robsons Road, Keiraville to get home.
It’s a decision she still regrets today.
‘’I remember it was raining quite a bit for a couple of weeks prior and especially that day,’’ she said.
‘’So it was pouring when I left work and I went a way which wasn’t the usual way home because I knew the bottom of the street where it was flooded, so I went another way.
‘’But when I got there, there were blackouts, there were cars turning around and it was a bit chaotic.
‘’I saw water on the road but I really wanted to get home so I just drove through. But the car stalled in the middle of it and before long the fast-moving water was bashing against the car and had risen halfway up the window.’’
Fearing for her life Dr Westley-Wise jumped through the opposite side window but practically as soon as she got out, the onrushing water washed her away down the road.
’’It wasn’t too deep but it definitely was too strong,’’ she said.
‘’Fortunately I managed to grab a tree branch near a carport which I climbed up on.
‘’I stayed on it for awhile and got bashed around by wheelie bins and logs and God knows what coming down from Mt Keira.
‘’I then climbed along a fence and made my way across to a nearby house.’’
Her traumatic story features in a NSW SES social media campaign filmed by Why Documentaries, to highlight the dangers of entering floodwater.
NSW SES won a Resilient Australia Award for the national project called Real People, True Stories - If It's Flooded, Forget It.
I nearly died. Seriously, if I hadn't grabbed hold of that carport, I'd be dead.
- Dr Victoria Westley-Wise
‘’I nearly died. Seriously, if I hadn’t grabbed hold of that carport, I'd be dead,’’ Dr Westley-Wise said.
‘’Don't drive into floodwaters. Don’t drive into waters running across the road. It is very hard to judge how deep or how strong the waters are and flash floods can kill you.’’
The campaign featuring ‘’real-life’’ videos that were shared across Facebook, You Tube and Twitter, has reached more than 800,000 people, including at least 173,000 young men, who are most at risk of drowning in floodwater.
NSW SES senior project officer Samantha Karmel said the resources can be used proactively or responsively during future flooding events to provide timely reminders about flood safety.