Dewees Marina Waterline Photos for Car Insurance Claims — December 17, 2023 Nor’easter Storm

Our side of Charleston experienced a huge winter storm on December 17.  This article is intended to make it easy for our neighbors who had cars flooded in the Dewees Island Marina at 46 41st Avenue, Isle of Palms, SC 29451 to share information and photos with their insurance companies.  See Judy’s post about the overall effects of the storm on Dewees.

I believe that numerous parking spots in the marina were covered with 20-30 inches of water.  Some spots where higher and cars or trucks in those spots may not have experienced damage.  We are aware of at least 14 cars that were flooded.  We have personally filed 2 claims with our insurance company.

I believe the water came from the Intracoastal Waterway and Morgan Creek plus the 6-8 inches of rain that fell in the area.  The water covered much of the area from Morgan Creek to 41st Avenue, meaning most of our marina parking lot plus most or all of the IOP Palms Marina parking lot.  Much of 41st Avenue was flooded and listed as closed by the IOP Police Department for most of the day.

You can right click and download images from this post to upload to your insurance company or you can share the link to this entire post.

Here’s a  satelite view from Google Maps of the area.

 

Flood waters cover much of the Dewees Marina Parking, IOP Marina Parking and 41st Avenue. Numerous other areas on IOP were also affected.
See waterline on fence about a foot below the sign and perhaps 12-14 inches above the Dewees Marina driveway. The driveway is higher at this point than the spots were most of the cards were parked.
Fence and garbage can from IOP Marina next door. We believe this line is 30+ inches above the 41st Avenue roadbed.
Another view of the IOP Marina fence waterline.
Along the bottom of the Dewees Island sign there's a waterline. It's 20-30 inches above the 41st Avenue road bed. It's my belief that water stretched like a giant sheet from here to the water in the marina bathroom and beyond. Any cars in the area likely had water inside. Only very tall cars / trucks or vehicles which just happened to be parked on very high spots in the lot might have escaped damage.
On the other side of the Dewees parking lot, this hutch is inside the Dewees Marina bathroom. The floor of the bathroom is probably 4 inches above the gravel outside. The mark on the hutch is approximately 14 inches above the floor. The building is higher than the area of the lot where many of the cars set.
The waterline on this Audi is clear in the photograph. Several of the flooded cars were South or Southwest or West of this car. They were 6, 12, maybe 16 inches lower than this car. My Toyota Sienna Minivan was to the west of this spot 2 slips and had water inside on the floorboards.
This photograph is from 7:45 a.m., the day after the storm. It's the soonest I could get to my car. The flood waters had mostly receded at this point, but it gives a good sense that the lot is not perfectly flat. Some areas are subtantially lower. These cars were likely in 20-30 inches of water. My white Tesla was likely in 20-30 inches of water.
This screen capture from a video I took of the trunk of my Tesla shows water inside the car. There was also water in the wheel wells and the cabin of the car. Numerous alarms and warnings were activated by the flooding.
Location of more cars at 7:53 a.m. on 12/18. The cars and trucks on the right may have been in 18 to 24 inches of water.
Potentially flooded car location at 7:46 a.m. on 12/18/23
It's harder to see, but you can perceive the waterline on the tire tred and the debris from the storm sticking out of the hub cap.
establishes location of car on the morning of 12/18/23.
Estalishes location of car on the morning of 12/18/23
Establishes location of car on the morning of 12/18/23
Establishes location of car on the morning of 12/18/23
This is our minivan. It had flood water inside on the morning of 12/18 and probably most of 12/17.
Screen capture from a video I took. I touched my hand to the floormat -- very wet. The pink paper trash that happened to be on the floor is wet. Flood water defintely got inside this car.