Australia orders 200,000 to flee floods

Australia's emergency services yesterday ordered 200,000 people to flee from the path of a wild storm that has killed 13 people in a week of record-setting east coast floods, but the city of Sydney escaped the worst of the deluge.

Authorities issued severe rain and wind warnings for a 400-kilometre (250-mile) stretch of the coast as water levels rose rapidly -- including in suburbs around Sydney, Australia's largest city and home to five million people.