Floods engulf resort towns in northeastern Australia
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Emergency workers on Saturday recovered the body of a 10-year-old boy who drowned after falling into a swollen river as floods engulfed two resort towns in northeastern Australia, police said.
The boy was swept off a causeway in Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales on Friday night as cyclone-induced winds and rain lashed the area.
His body was found early Saturday morning not far from where he was swept away, a New South Wales police spokeswoman told the Australian Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Also early Saturday, rescue teams found a French yachtsman safe and well after he disappeared off the coast of southern Queensland in rough seas late Friday night.
Rain-swollen rivers broke their banks in northern New South Wales, sending torrents into the resort towns of Murwillumbah and Lismore.
Emergency service workers prepared to evacuate residents and vacationers there.
State Emergency Services spokesman Phil Campbell warned that the floods would probably be about 8 meters (26 feet) deep by noon.
"We will need to evacuate a caravan park in Lismore and move the vans to higher ground,'' Campbell said.
About 90,000 homes and businesses in the region were still without power early Saturday, Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported.
Authorities closed beaches and canceled surfing competitions on Friday, while grocery stores and banks shut their doors early as the storm hit.
The region has been hit by heavy winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour), and up to 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain.
The storm, the remnants of a cyclone that battered the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu last week, comes just five days into the Southern Hemisphere's autumn, and only weeks after the same area endured record temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). - AP
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