Fears for mother and children caught in flooded river
A mother and her two children were feared dead last night as police worked to recover a car that was swept into a flooded northern NSW river.
Police were trying to recover the vehicle, which went into the Tweed River off Dulguigan Road in Tumbulgum.
A 10-year-old girl was able to escape the car as it was dragged into the water and residents at a nearby house came to her aid.
Witness Thomas Grinham saw the girl shouting that her family members were swept away by floodwaters.
“She was screaming [that] her mum, little sister and older brother had gone into the river in the car,” he told the Seven Network.
Another young witness, Sophie Grinham, said she saw the girl’s father respond to the pleas.
“The husband came down, and dad and two other boys just jumped into the water and couldn’t dive deep enough,” the girl told Seven.
The northern NSW region has experienced record-breaking floods following last week’s deluge which came after Cyclone Debbie hammered Queensland.
Two women have been confirmed killed by the floodwaters in NSW which began rising on Friday.
In Queensland’s southeast, wild weather was hampering urgent efforts to find a man in his 60s reported missing in bushland. The 65-year-old is one of three men who were missing across Queensland in the wake of Cyclone Debbie and the ensuing floods.
He was last seen in the Lamington National Park area on March 29.
Police believe he was walking with a large sightseeing group but didn’t return to a pre-arranged meeting point.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said yesterday that Australia needs to better prepare for extreme weather events like Cyclone Debbie by investing in improved infrastructure.
Turnbull visited residents in the flood-ravaged Logan suburb of Eagleby, south of Brisbane, as emergency services continued cleaning up after last week’s torrential rain.
“These are record flood events so we’re going to have to be better prepared for the next one because clearly this will be repeated,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we are more floodproof in the future.” — AAP