At least six dead in Severe Australia storms
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday June 9, 7:53 PM
*At least six dead in Severe Australia storms*
Six people were confirmed dead and another two were missing on Saturday
as wild storms continued to lash Australia's east coast, smashing boats,
flooding roads and cutting power to 200,000 homes.
The Hunter Valley and Central Coast regions north of Sydney were
declared disaster zones after being pounded by gale-force winds and
torrential rains for a second day.
Massive seas ran aground at least 12 pleasure craft moored in Sydney
Harbour, although fears eased that a massive coal freighter stranded at
Newcastle would break up and create an environmental disaster.
Police put the official death toll at six, including a couple in their
fifties whose car was washed off a bridge.
Searchers also found the bodies of four members of a family of five
carried away when a highway collapsed.
The four bodies found were an adult female and three children -- a
nine-year-old boy, a three-year-old girl and a two-year-old girl. The
children's bodies were recovered.
Search teams were still looking for one more family member, believed to
be an adult male.
The Australian Associated Press news agency reported that the adult body
found, a 30-year-old woman, was the mother of the children and the
missing male, a 30-year-old, was the father.
A Newcastle man was also missing after falling down a stormwater drain
late Friday, police said.
With Australia beginning a long holiday weekend, officials advised
motorists to scrap plans to travel to popular tourist spots in the
state's north, saying a number of major roads were closed.
Power utility EnergyAustralia said 200,000 homes had no electricity and
could remain blacked out until late next week.
"This is the worst storm and the worst damage our electricity network
has seen for more than 30 years," EnergyAustralia network general
manager Geoff Lilliss said.
Hundreds of people were evacuated as floodwaters rose, including 65
elderly residents of a Central Coast nursing home.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the storm dumped 300 millimetres (12
inches) of rain on some areas, with winds peaking at 120 kilometres per
hour (75 miles per hour).
It said conditions had eased slightly Saturday morning, granting a
reprieve to emergency services struggling to cope with more than 5,000
calls for assistance.
But meteorology bureau forecaster Julie Evans said that after causing
extensive flooding in Newcastle, the storm was likely to intensify as it
moved south towards Sydney before heading out to sea.
"It will be the sting in the tail in the system before it moves off to
the east," she told Sky News.
Sydney ferry services were suspended for a second day amid huge swells.
Officials said at least a dozen recreational boats in Sydney Harbour had
broken their moorings and run aground and that 30 more needed to be
towed to safety, while a beachside wharf collapsed into to sea.
But the 30,000-tonne vessel Pasha Bulker, which ran aground Friday when
the storm first hit, appeared to be structurally sound and there was no
sign that its 800 tonnes of oil and fuel was leaking.
A number of other ships that were also in danger of becoming stranded
had managed to steam into deeper waters overnight, officials said.
The Pasha Bulker sparked a dramatic rescue Friday as a helicopter braved
gale-force winds to pluck its Filipino and Korean crew to safety from
the ship's deck.