Record floodwaters in eastern Australia leave four dead and one missing

Record floodwaters on Australia’s east coast have left four people dead and one missing, officials said on 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 surroundings on 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 verandah of his flooded home.

The latest victim was a man in his 70s whose body was found in a car in floodwater on 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.

Australian 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.

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,” Mr Allan told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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