CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Two men trapped in vehicles have become the first fatalities of record flooding on Australia’s east coast. Officials say a car was trapped in floodwater northwest of Sydney early Wednesday and emergency services later recovered the car with a body inside. Police say an emergency crew later retrieved the body of another man from an upturned pickup truck in a flooded creek near Gold Coast city in Queensland state. While rain has eased across New South Wales and southern Queensland, flooding has persisted. Officials say most rivers had peaked by Thursday, but 20,000 people are still evacuated from their homes.
