MELBOURNE, Australia — Record floodwaters on Australia's east coast have left four people dead and one missing, officials said Friday as rain eased over the disaster area.
Some 50,000 people have been isolated by flooding along the coast of New South Wales state north of Sydney after days of heavy rain. The low-pressure weather system that brought the deluge had moved further south to Sydney and its surrounds Friday.
Four bodies have been retrieved from floodwaters in New South Wales since Wednesday. Three of the victims had driven into floodwaters, while a man's body had been found on the veranda of his flooded home.
The latest victim was a man in his 70s whose body was found in a car in floodwater Friday near Coffs Harbour, a police statement said. The car had run off the road.
A 49-year-old man remains missing after walking near a flooded road at Nymboida on Wednesday night.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New South Wales Premier Christopher Minns on Friday were inspecting devastated communities, some of which had been inundated by the highest floodwaters on record.
Minns praised emergency services and volunteers for rescuing 678 people from floodwaters in recent days, including 177 in the past 24 hours.
''It's an amazing, heroic logistical effort where, in very difficult circumstances, many volunteers put themselves in harm's way to rescue a complete stranger. And over the coming days and weeks, we will hear scores of stories of locals being plucked out of impossible, desperate situations,'' Minns told reporters in Maitland in the flood area.
