Southeast Australia lashed by heavy rain, flood warnings issued
As heavy rain lashed southeast Australia thousands more lost power and a man was missing on Thursday, Hundreds of homes were evacuated, Flood warnings were issued. With catchments soaked by months of above-average rainfall New South Wales and Victoria, and the island state of Tasmania were rising dangerously, Rivers across Australia’s most populous states. By Thursday night ahead of major flooding around 250 homes in the New South Wales city of Forbes, west of Sydney, were ordered to be evacuated. With the Lachlan River expected to reach a major flood peak of 10.6 meters (34 feet, 9 inches) by Friday, the State Emergency Service issued an order for 17 streets to be evacuated by 8 p.m., (0900 GMT) including the central downtown precinct. On the Lachlan River near the New South Wales town of Hillston Llast seen on Tuesday Police said a 63-year-old man was on a rural property, west of Sydney. To find any sign of him he was reported missing hours later but emergency crews have failed....