May 23 (UPI) -- Five people were confirmed killed on Friday in record flooding in northern New South Wales with 50,000 people cut off, thousands of homes and businesses without power and cattle herds wiped out.
Police confirmed the fifth fatality Friday evening after they recovered a body, believed to be a man in his 80s, from a property in the north of the state that had been cut off by flooding and landslides.
Three motorists, two men and a woman, drowned in their vehicles after being caught in floodwaters. A fourth man was found dead on the porch of his home northwest of the town of Taree.
Authorities issued fresh heavy rain warnings as the weather system headed south, bearing down on Sydney and Newcastle with at least 164 State Emergency Service warnings in place along the NSW coast.
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Transport for NSW urged people to avoid travel, including those headed to the Vivid Sydney festival, due to get underway Friday night, after flash flooding caused travel disruption across the city, inundating rail lines, subway stations and the airport rail-link, forced road closures and the suspension of most ferry services.
With Port Macquarie and Taree experiencing their wettest May in more than 200 years, NSW SES Assistant Commissioner Dean Storey called on residents in communities cut off by flooding to remain patient and follow the advice of emergency services.
"We are starting to see rainfall in the impacted areas begin to ease, as the weather system moves to the South Coast. If you are under evacuation warnings, please be patient, do not return home until you're informed it is safe to do so, stay up to date with the latest information, and stay in safe locations," he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took to social media to put out a message of solidarity and pledge disaster assistance and financial help for residents impacted by "the devastating floods."
"You are not alone," he wrote on his official X account.
"We've now activated disaster assistance across 19 local government areas, including new support for Armidale, Muswellbrook and Walcha. In addition, applications for income support open Monday through Services Australia, to help workers who've lost hours or income get back on their feet," said Albanese.
