Record floodwaters in eastern Australia leave 4 dead and 1 missing

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — 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.

“Without the volunteers, we would have had hundreds of deaths and we’re in deep, deep gratitude to those people who volunteered their time,” Minns added.

Despite the easing rain, State Emergency Service Commissioner Mike Wassing said crews were still looking out for floodwaters potentially rising due to water continuing to flow into catchments.

“We still do have active flood rescues still coming into the system and we’re dealing with those on a case-by-case" basis, Wassing said. “We have seen that tempo drop off, and that’s a good thing.”

Bellingen Shire Council Mayor Steve Allan said landslides and damaged roads and bridges were complicating the process of reaching isolated communities in his rural local government region southwest of Coffs Harbour.

“We’ve woken up to blue skies which is a great thing,” Allan said.

“Our rivers are slowly receding and I think we’re probably transitioning from the response phase into the recovery phase this morning,” he added.