The storm only lasted for fifteen minutes, but nearly two weeks later Sydney residents are still reeling from the devastation.
The thunderstorm that struck Sydney a fortnight ago hit Kellyville particularly hard, with tennis ball sized hailstones smashing cars and breaking open tile roofs throughout the suburb.
Many houses in Stynes Avenue are still waiting for repairs with blue tarpaulins being held down with sandbags and lengths of string strung over broken rooftops.
Kellyville resident Catherine Adkins’ roof was damaged in the storm, but unlike her neighbours she doesn’t have to make do with a tarp.
Mrs Adkins is one of the first people in the area to benefit from a new storm repair technology which provides a much greater level of security than traditional temporary roof coverings.
Stormseal is a unique, polymer technology for weatherproofing buildings. It’s a strong polyethylene film that heat-shrinks to cover a damaged roof or wall, providing secure protection from wind, rain and hail, and requiring no further intervention until permanent repairs are made.
HomeRepair, a national repair partner for many of Australia’s leading Insurers, has assisted thousands of home owners recover from storm damage and currently uses Stormseal in multiple regions across Victoria, NSW, and Queensland.
Catherine said residents were still coming to terms with the damage and the risk of more bad weather created ongoing stress.
“You don’t realise, the noise, it’s just massive. People say freight train but it wasn’t like that. I looked out across the road to the house across the street and they were hitting the tiles and the tiles were going boom. I was looking at the new house being built over there and I was watching holes being punched in the roof. The neighbour across the street said she was watching my house and saw a couple of tiles go bang and saw this massive amount of water come straight down inside the house.”
“Until you go through an experience like that, you don’t realise what it’s like. It takes you two days to really process it. Because you’re so busy making sure everybody’s okay in the neighbourhood and talking to everyone. And then all of a sudden you just go, ‘oh my god, that really did happen’. And then you hear the rain on the roof, the rain on the tarps, and you can see where the leaks have been, and it’s still coming in. You just don’t feel safe.”
“It affects you. At the time, It’s on the news and everyone’s saying ‘oh how horrible’. But then you don’t hear about it again. And yet there’s all these people left around here whose houses are absolutely wrecked. You can hear the tarps at night and you just can’t sleep.”
“That’s why when they mentioned Stormseal I said ‘fantastic, peace of mind, absolute peace of mind’. Because you don’t know how long it’s going to be before you get a new roof or what’s going to happen.”
Catherine says that with news of a Tasman low hitting the coast and the potential for more bad weather on the way, she’s relieved to have the protection of Stormseal.
“The minute they said HomeRepair was coming to install the Stormseal I felt better. I was really pleased because it was put on quicker than I first thought. It was raining and I was worried they wouldn’t be able to get it on, but they said ‘no way, we’re coming, whatever happens we’re going to get it on’. The installation was no problem at all, they were wonderful, they did a really good job. They don’t even need to come into the house. I told all my neighbours about it. Talk to your insurance companies about Stormseal.”
“We’ve had two showers since the Stormseal was installed and it’s been fine. Normally I’m getting dripping down the facing of the windows. But now it’s not. My priority is to keep it this way. I didn’t want water damage inside my house.”
Stormseal inventor and Managing Director, Matthew Lennox, who got the idea for the product from helping repair the city after the massive 2007 wild weather event said tarps just aren’t good enough.
“Stormseal has multiple advantages over tarpaulins. Tarps frequently require replacement, because they leak, tear, blow off, or collapse under the weight of pooling rainwater. Tarp failures cause further trauma to residents and more property damage, so that if it wasn’t already, the building may soon become uninhabitable. In contrast, once installed, Stormseal stays put.”