Currajong Street became a river of ice, a car drifting diagonally across the road and hail so deep it was like walking on marbles.
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That was Bev Rowe’s experience after the freak flash storm hit Parkes at 7pm on October 21.
Bev has lived in her Currajong Street home for 21 years and has never seen anything like it after a storm.
Her wattle tree in the backyard was – she believes – hit by lightning, splitting it almost in half, and her solar hot water system exploded from the force of the hail.
“It was unbelievable,” Bev said.
“We heard this bang as I went around closing all the windows, then we heard an explosion.
“The first noise we assume was lightning hitting the wattle right through the core of it, the second lot of noise was our solar hot water system exploding.”
But it was the storm’s aftermath that really had Bev scratching her head.
While she was out of power at one end of Currajong Street, the other end had power.
Bev also noticed Welcome Street still had power, allowing for the new Indian restaurant to get through its opening night somewhat uninterrupted.
And as she inspected her home, she found most of the pegs left on her washing line were broken and only one side of her mandarin tree was damaged where halves of mandarins remained.
Her skylight was punctured and her tea tree came down, blocking her electric gate.
“Out the front, it was amazing,” Bev said.
“Currajong Street was like a river of ice and I’ve only ever seen the water travel in one direction, I’ve never seen water travel across the road at the Mitchell Street intersection,” she said.
“And I saw this car moving down the road on an angle, I wasn’t sure if there was anyone in it.
“It was quite terrifying, I thought heaven help if anyone was driving, they had no control of that car.
“I wanted to get closer to film it all but I tried walking on the hail that covered the path at the front gate, it was about 15-20cm deep.
“My shoe sunk in it, it was like walking on marbles.
“If that storm had lasted longer, we would have had major problems.”
Meanwhile, a Billabong Crescent resident also had a bizarre experience after the storm tore through her property. She walked outside to find her plants in tatters and the shredded pieces stuck to her Colorbond fence.
