1 dead and 1 missing in Australian flooding

Rains from Tropical Cyclone Rusty caused flooding that killed at least one person and left another missing in Australia's Queensland state, authorities said. Queensland, in the northeast part of the country, was on flood alert Monday. Weather officials said southeastern sections of the state could get up to 8 inches of rain in the next two days from the Category 2 storm, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Officials said Rusty could become a Category 4 storm, with wind gusts topping 125 mph. Forecasters said the path of the slow-moving cyclone was difficult to predict. The drenching rains in Queensland caused a vehicle to sink in floodwaters in Kilcoy, north of Brisbane. Emergency workers said they removed the body of a man in his 60s from the vehicle. Authorities searched for a woman who disappeared after she abandoned her car near a flooded causeway farther north in Pomona, authorities said. A forecaster for the Australian weather bureau said about 3 inches of rain had fallen in the Toowoomba area since 9 a.m. Monday. Residents of Gympie, along the banks of the Mary River 100 miles north of Brisbane, were being urged to prepare for flooding, with the river expected to crest at 52-1/2 feet Tuesday morning. Water levels in the mid- and far-north coasts of New South Wales were beginning to drop, officials said, but 19,000 people remained isolated by flooding.