Surprise, in-car spring flooding

I had a project car patiently waiting in line all winter. Yesterday I had a free hour and a little daylight so I went to go asses how it did over the winter. I was surprised to find a couple inches of ice on the floor of the passenger compartment. I guess the door seals weren't as good as I thought. I took out as much ice as I could and vacuumed up the rest. I don't want this to start getting moldy now that the weather is getting warmer.

I know large desiccant packs exist, like this. But I was thinking there would be a cheaper option, like lots of rice in cheesecloth bags, or just spread it straight on the floor. This could lead to a mice problem but I could always fill the car with snakes .

Has anyone had to dry out a car like this before?

I took out the carpet and hung it on the clothes line.

This happened twice to me in my Focus ZX3. Weirdest thing ever. Went through a bunch of floods and dry as a bone. Twice in normal rain it put about 3" of water in the passenger side floor.

Just weird.

EDIT: I just shop vac'd it out and it was summer so heat.

Shop vac, towels, raise the carpet and leave some fans on it

Heat and fans! Can you heat your garage up enough to drive the water out of the carpet?

I like the snakes idea.

Pull the seats out and put in a dehumidifier for a while. Worked on the Saturn Vue when the sunroof drain disconnected itself and left 4 inches of water in car.

In reply to RossD:

For all practical purposes, I don't have a garage for the next 2 months.

In reply to RevRico: I hadn't actually thought of just using a dehumidifier. I have a big one in my basement I could stuff in there for a few days and see how it does.

Dehumidifier works pretty well. It throws off some heat too, so it should end up keeping the air in the car pretty warm and dry. Just get as much water out as you can first to reduce the drying time needed (soak it out of the carpet with towels, etc.)

You could also put a space heater in the car and run an extension cord. If you got the amps, run both the heater and the dehumidifier. The hotter the air, the more moisture it'll hold and the more moisture the dehumidifier can pull out of the air.