I thought I was going to go down to a watery grave: survivor’s ordeal

Polly Campi can’t shake the memory of the moment raging floodwaters lifted her car from the road and sent it hurtling into a 4m-deep torrent.

Lismore flood survivor Polly Campi outside her home. Picture: Media Mode

Polly Campi can’t shake the memory of the moment raging floodwaters lifted her car from the road and sent it hurtling into a 4m-deep torrent, with brown water pouring through the windows as she fought for her life.

The antique store owner had woken early to find water slowly rising through the backyard of her Lismore home.

At that point the water was only 60cm above the ground, but the 64-year-old decided to play it safe and evacuate her home. That at least was the right decision. Within hours, flood water almost completely engulfed her two-storey house.

Packing her five-year-old german shepherd, Sweetpea aka Pea into the car, Ms Campi drove off heading for higher ground. It wasn’t long before she hit floodwater, which she judged safe to drive through.

At first, she was fine but within seconds her car was picked up by surging floodwaters.

“I had no control of the car, I think I was just spinning,” she said.

She wound down her windows - not wanting to be trapped - and water started rushing in.

“Pea, Pea, Pea,” she yelled, desperate to grab her dog but unable to find her in the dark.

“I thought ‘Oh my god, we’re just going to drown,” she said.

As the car began to sink, she noticed a piece of wire cable attached to a power pole and reached out to grab it before scrambling through the window.

“I turned around and said ‘Come on Pea, we’ve got to get out of here’,” she said.

It was too late. Her car sank beneath the water, with her dog still inside.

“It just all of a sudden dis­appeared and everything was black,” she said.

She held on to the wire “like a monkey” for 90 minutes as debris-filled water surged around her.

“I kept getting whacked by wheelie bins, pieces of trees, a picket fence,” she said. “My legs were wrapped around the cable.”

Thoughts of her sons and family were going through her head. She was certain she’d never see them again.

“I absolutely thought I was going to die, and a few times I just wanted to go,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone was going to come anyway; I thought I was going to go down to a watery grave.”

At one point, some locals came by on a boat but the force of the floodwaters were too strong. They couldn’t reach her. “I’m crying and screaming, ‘Please someone help me, help me, please someone help me’,” she said.

Not long after, two young boys floating on inflated rubbish bags managed to grab on to something near her. “We’ve lost our dog and we’ve lost our cat,” they told her.

“I think I’ve lost my girl,” she replied through tears.

By that point, the water was so high she was level with the signage of a building nearby road.

“Water was up to my neck,” she said. “It seemed like forever and all of a sudden, there was a floodlight coming towards us, and the boys were saying ‘It’s a boat, it’s a boat!’”, she said.

The trio was dragged to safety by strangers.

Sadly, Sweetpea didn’t make it.

“That’s what hurts more than anything else,” Ms Campi said.

Returning to the scene of the rescue, she said she couldn’t live in Lismore again after her ordeal and didn’t think many others would.

“I just care about my dog, and if she’s not here, I’m not staying,” she said.

She can’t imagine swimming in the ocean again, so horrifying are her memories of the water. And she has one warning for anyone thinking of driving through flood waters: “Don’t do it - go back the other way.”