Joy as missing daughter gets in touch

Kassidy. Photo / Supplied

A Taranaki mother was overwhelmed with joy yesterday to hear the voice of her 10-year-old daughter, who had been missing in the Queensland floods since Monday.

Rachel Carley, of New Plymouth, spent an agonising five days waiting to hear from her daughter Kassidy Bauer, caught in one of the worst hit areas in Queensland's Lockyer Valley. The little girl had been on a six-week Christmas trip visiting her father, Anthony Bauer, when flood waters ripped through his farm on Monday.

The flood cut power and phone lines, destroyed roads and bridges. Thousands of people were evacuated, and many of the confirmed dead and missing are from the Lockyer Valley.

Carley said she had spent a harrowing week frantic unable to reach her ex-partner or her daughter. Yesterday afternoon, she was over the moon to get the call from Kassidy.

Carley's brother Daniel also lives in the flood zone, in Toowoomba.

"He works for the council and has been road clearing and pulling bodies out of cars. He's had a terrible time. He told us water was gushing into his house but he is OK," she said.