A schoolteacher at a Brisbane school is among two missing after fierce storms in Queensland’s southeast left five people dead, including a nine-year-old girl.
Stephen “Taity” Tait and two others were reported missing after the boat they were travelling on capsized near Green Island in Moreton Bay about 5.30pm on Boxing Day.
David “Mario” Logan, a volunteer at Brothers Rugby, was killed in the incident, according to the Courier-Mail, with emergency services rescuing a further eight people.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll on Wednesday revealed a 16-year-old boy had also been found dead, with the search ongoing for Mr Tait.
Emergency services across the state, and the country, grapple with devastating storms that have damaged critical infrastructure and caused flash flooding.
A nine-year-old girl was found dead in a stormwater drain on Wednesday after jumping a fence at an address at Rochedale South in Logan shortly after 6pm on Tuesday.
That same day, police also located the body of a missing 40-year-old woman in waters at Mary River near Gympie, with another woman, aged 46, still unaccounted for.
A 59-year-old woman was earlier killed when she was crushed by a falling tree while walking home from a car breakdown on Monday at Helensavle, Gold Coast.
Forecasters predict the wet and wild weather that has so far plunged more than 200,000 Queensland homes into darkness to continue.
Premier Steven Miles told the media on Tuesday that Christmas Day storms had caused “unprecedented” damage, including uprooting concrete power poles for the first time.
Across the state’s southeast there were reports of boats being upturned, roofs being destroyed, and flash flooding swallowing cars, including in Brisbane’s south.
Further south, a woman was killed at a campground in East Gippsland and another was rescued alongside her dog from the Werribee River in Victoria following storms there.
A man was killed on Tuesday by a tree branch at a property in Caringal, east of Melbourne.
Emergency services in the state continue to battle widespread flooding on Wednesday, with flood warnings in place for the Avoca and Loddon rivers.
In NSW, SES crews responded to more than 470 calls for help on Boxing Day, with hail causing havoc across Maitland and the Hunter Valley region.
The state is also grappling with tragedies.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday that Khattab Abu Haish, 19, went missing in surf off Congo Beach, near Moruya, about 3.30pm on Tuesday.
Later that day, a 35-year-old man drowned while paddleboarding at the newly opened Penrith Beach in Sydney’s west. His body was located on Wednesday.