Heartwarming moment drivers rally around young woman with epilepsy after they became stranded on a highway during Australian floods
- Alissia King, 25, was among hundreds stranded on Pacific Highway in flash flood
- She was on her way home from work when she was trapped in Chinderah tunnel
- A severe epileptic, Ms King battled shaking fits when unable to access medicine
- She shared a TikTok video showing how people helped each other in the ordeal
A woman with severe epilepsy who became stuck on a freeway for more than 24 hours due to the floods has recalled her heartwarming experience of stranded motorists rallying together to help each other.
Alissia King was among hundreds of motorists stuck on the Pacific Motorway at Chinderah just south of the Queensland-NSW border after the freeway was cut off due to flash flooding which inundated both states.
Dozens of vehicles including trucks and buses were stranded for more than two days until the highway between Chinderah and Tweed Heads re-opened on Wednesday.
Ms King, 25, uploaded a video of her ordeal to TikTok that has since attracted hundreds of views and comments.
Alissia King was among hundreds of motorists stuck on the Pacific Motorway at Chinderah just south of the Queensland-NSW border after the freeway was cut off due to flash flooding
Hundreds of travellers, including children and pets, were trapped in the tunnel for two days
The resident of Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast got stuck in a traffic queue before the tunnel on Monday morning as she headed back from her job as a barista at a Cabarita cafe in northern NSW.
Little did she know it was the beginning of a 36-hour ordeal in which she and hundreds of others were unable to go forward or back on the stretch of the highway due to a flash flood.
A queue of cars stretching four kilometres before the tunnel formed when the waters rose over the road.
‘I have severe epilepsy and need to take medication in the morning and night,’ Ms King said.
‘By the afternoon I hadn’t eaten for a few hours and was shaking. I was also alone and called my mum and started freaking out.
‘I went to the car behind just to make sure someone knew of my situation. The gentleman in the car said his wife was a doctor so that made me feel safer.’
Ms King said mobile reception was difficult in the area but that when someone managed to call Tweed Heads police at 9pm on Monday evening, it was unaware the motorists were trapped in and before the tunnel.
She said the community spirit between those who were trapped was extraordinary.
An Aldi truck driver provided chicken and a dairy delivery driver handed out milk and yoghurt
‘I thought they’d be a lot more panic,’ Ms King said. ‘There were kids and animals caught up in it but everyone lent a helping hand’
Motorist were stuck for two days, unable to go forward or back on either side of the tunnel
‘I thought there would be a lot more panic,’ she said.
‘There were kids and animals caught up in it but everyone lent a helping hand.
‘There was an Aldi truck stuck with us – he called his boss because he had 18 tonnes of chicken that was about to go off so we had a big cook-up in the tunnel and everyone got fed.
‘It wasn’t glamorous – there was a garbage truck stuck with us so there were maggots in the tunnel.
A driver in a dairy truck handed out milk and yoghurt while another driver walked along the queue of cars handing out sushi he had in his car.
Other locals lowered food to stranded drivers from a highway overpass.
After spending the night in her car, Ms King said she began passing in and out of consciousness and knew she needed to find a way out of the predicament to reach her medication.
‘I had about six hours until I started convulsing,’ she said.
Ms King was rescued by local surfers on jet skis and transported to Tweed Heads so she could access epilepsy medication
Ms King was eventually rescued by a group of Gold Coast surfers, including world champions Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning, who managed to reach her on a jet ski and transport her to Tweed Heads where her father picked her up with her medication.
‘I had a bit of survivor’s guilt, actually,’ she said.
‘We made the best of it – the kids pulled out skateboards and scooters, people had speakers and played music.
‘One lady went into labour and they managed to get her to Byron Bay, another lady needed a ventolin machine.
‘Everyone lent a helping hand. I would not want to have been stuck with any other group of people.’
Ms King eventually retrieved her car from a nearby service station on Thursday after it and other trapped vehicles were towed out of the tunnel by the NSW RTA.
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