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Sydney - The death toll from heavy rains that inundated Australia's east coast has climbed to six, as flood warnings continued on Sunday following a severe deluge that cut power to thousands of homes and isolated numerous communities.
The eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales faced a huge clean-up task ahead, but conditions will apparently ease following days of stormy weather.
"Never before have we seen such a huge volume of rain drop in such a short period of time," said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Nearby hospital
A six-year-old boy became the sixth storm victim when he was swept away by rough seas at a beach on Saturday, police and surf lifesavers said.The boy was walking along South Ballina beach with his father and older brother when he was pulled into the ocean by stormy waters, according to the surf lifesavers.
Police said he was rescued by fishermen and flown to a nearby hospital, where he died.
Five people, including a five-year-old boy, also lost their lives on Friday when two 4-wheel-drive vehicles were caught in flash flooding in Caboolture about 44km north of Brisbane.
Regional mayor Allan Sutherland described the torrential downpour as a "one-in-2000-year event".
Flood damage
"To say we got smacked would be an understatement," Sutherland told Queensland's Courier Mail.
"It's surreal now. This nightmare just came through and took five souls."
Caboolture was hit by 277mm of rain in just three hours on Friday to take total rainfall in the area to 360mmin less than 24 hours.
More than 2 000 calls were made to Queensland's State Emergency Service, mostly relating to flood damage and sandbagging.
