In New South Wales, Australia, floods have already claimed the lives of four people. Although the rains are subsiding, thousands of residents remain cut off from the world. One person is still missing.

Record floods cut a destructive path through eastern Australia on Friday, caking houses in silt, washing out roads and separating 50,000 people from help. Four bodies have been pulled from vast tides of floodwater engulfing parts of northern New South Wales, a fertile region of rivers and valleys some 400 kilometres up the coast from Sydney.