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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Helen Davidson (now), Christopher Knaus (earlier)

Police search for owners of cars found in floodwaters after Cyclone Debbie – as it happened

A damaged building can be seen behind a boat that was pushed on to a bank in Airlie Beach by Cyclone Debbie
A damaged building can be seen behind a boat that was pushed on to a bank in Airlie Beach by Cyclone Debbie. Photograph: STRINGER/Reuters

Summary

We’ll be winding up this blog now but stay tuned to the Guardian homepage for updates.

The extent of the damage caused by ex-Cyclone Debbie is becoming clearer, but some places are still cut off from emergency services and communication. Debbie is now a tropical low heading towards central and south-east Queensland, and has brought dangerous flash floods.

Here’s what we know so far:

  • No one is thought to have died in the cyclone itself, and reports of serious injuries are still limited. That may change as emergency services reach cut-off areas.
  • Heavy rainfall, particularly around Mackay, continues to pose major flooding risks. Flash flooding is occurring, and emergency services have conducted several swift-water rescues after motorists became trapped in floodwaters.
  • Emergency services were working to rescue three people stuck on the roof of a submerged car in Sarina, and authorities were also searching for the owners and possible passengers of two vehicles found submerged in the Whitsunday region.
  • Debbie is now a tropical low, which is moving inland to central Queensland. It is expected to move to the south-east of the state in coming days.
  • Roads across the coast and adjacent inland areas are cut off, either by debris or road damage. Motorists are being urged to stay off the roads, to avoid danger and to free up space for emergency services and the army.
  • The state recovery coordinator, Brigadier Christopher Field, said a ship was being loaded with engineering equipment and humanitarian stores in Brisbane and would head to the Whitsundays this evening.
  • Hamilton, Hayman and Daydream islands were all isolated with no communication. Police have made it to Hamilton to assist the 4,000 or so people wanting to get out.
  • Sugar cane crops, crucial to the local economy, have been flattened, although growers are still assessing what has been permanently lost.
  • Yachts have been ripped from their moorings at Shute Harbour, near Airlie Beach, and structures in the area have sustained significant damage.
  • About 63,000 homes remain without power. It might be more than a week before some areas are restored.
  • Concerns have been raised about the cyclone’s impact on a stretch of the Great Barrier Reef about 100km long.

Updated

Damaged trees and buildings on Hamilton Island
Damaged trees and buildings on Hamilton Island. Photograph: Reuters
A local resident walks past a yacht washed ashore at Airlie Beach
A local resident walks past a yacht washed ashore at Airlie Beach. Photograph: Reuters
Hungry locals queue up for burgers in Airlie Beach.
Hungry locals queue up for burgers in Airlie Beach. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Updated

There have been some rescues from the tops of cars caught in floodwaters, the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services deputy commissioner Mark Roche has told the ABC.

Emergency crews work are now working to rescue three people stranded on the roof of another car submerged in floodwater on Rifle Range Road in Sarina, and a search is under way for the owners and possible passengers of two vehicles found submerged in the Whitsunday region.

“It astounds me when people continue to put themselves in this position,” Roche said. “We have to move our rescuers from impacted areas … You don’t need to be in your cars, you don’t need to be in those areas.”

He said if people are getting stuck because they were being reckless, or sightseeing, it could be described as “almost criminal”.

“I don’t know the details of whether they were sightseeing … but the reality is it’s impacting on our ability to do our normal role.”

SES personnel and response crews are working across Queensland to remove fallen trees, clear roads and restore power.

Updated

From AAP:

Damage to properties with asbestos could leave Bowen residents homeless in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Debbie.

The coastal Queensland town escaped the worst of the category four system after the eye headed south and hit tourism hot spot Airlie Beach.

Renter Joel Medil said he ran to his friend’s house during the storm because he was scared.

But going home on Wednesday morning wasn’t an option after serious damage to his asbestos roof deemed the building uninhabitable.

“Now I decide to remove all my things and pack up everything,” Medil said.

“They said it (the asbestos) will kill me.”

Bowen State Emergency Service controller David Thicker said most properties built before 1984 were likely to have asbestos in them.

He said 66 SES volunteers from Cairns were being brought down to help with the clean up, which is expected to take weeks.

Most of the damage is to vegetation and fences with a handful of homes losing their roofs.

Flooding remains a threat for much of the region.

Queensland’s deputy premier, Jackie Trad, has told Channel Nine the tropical low will be hitting south-east Queensland in the next 24 to 48 hours.

She said island communities – Hamilton, Hayman and Daydream – were all isolated with no communication. Police have made it to Hamilton to assist the 4,000 or so people wanting to get out.

Trad has also urged people to take care as the high rainfall and flooding continues to have an impact on the region.

“If you don’t have to be on the road, don’t be on the road, and if it’s flooded forget it.”

Updated

From Australian Associated Press:

Queensland police are searching for the owners and possible passengers of two vehicles found submerged in floodwaters in the cyclone-hit Whitsunday region.
At least one of the cars went under on the Bruce Highway near Proserpine and was found with its windows down on Wednesday.
The police commissioner, Ian Stewart, said officers were retracing the steps of those who owned the vehicles to find out if they were safe.

Updated

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, is on the ground in Bowen, where she just told media that roofs, fences, trees and power lines are down, but the SES is on the ground and people are already cleaning up.

“We’re going down to Proserpine next, where we expect there to be some more widespread damage,” she said. “It would have been horrific, and thankfully there has been no loss of life.”

Palaszczuk said she’ll be speaking to the prime minister about assisting affected farmers.

The state recovery coordinator, Brigadier Christopher Field, said a ship was being loaded with engineering equipment and humanitarian stores in Brisbane and would head to the Whitsundays this evening.

Annastacia Palaszczuk arrives at Bowen airport to inspect damage caused by Cyclone Debbie
Annastacia Palaszczuk arrives at Bowen airport to inspect damage caused by Cyclone Debbie. Photograph: Sarah Motherwell/EPA

Updated

“It is still too soon to know just how severe the impacts of Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie are – this will take some days, or even weeks,” says Richard Thornton, chief executive of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.

We cannot prevent cyclones such as Debbie, but what Australia can do as a country is improve our mitigation across all natural hazards. But what we do know is that the cost of the response, and importantly, recovery, will be high, and not just in monetary terms.

We need to focus on better building and rebuilding of homes, and ensuring that existing houses have simple and cost-effective mitigation measures.

A study after 2011’s severe tropical Cyclone Yasi showed that some roof upgrades to older houses could pay for themselves after just one cyclone. This is why a focus on retrofit options for existing homes is such a cost-effective approach to dealing with various hazards.

There is a critical need for discussion around land-use planning and land management, and how and where we develop new areas with roads, bridges and other infrastructure.”

Prof Barbara Norman, of the University of Canberra, has also called for preparation to mitigate the impact of weather events and climate change.

We have no national coastal strategy despite over 25 national inquires/reports recommending that we do.

We have no plan to minimise the impacts of extreme events and climate change on coastal communities despite a comprehensive parliamentary inquiry recommending that we do.

We now face billions of dollars of costs that will only continue to escalate in the future in the face of no action.

Updated

On Cyclone Debbie’s implications for the Great Barrier Reef, the coral scientist Terry Hughes has pointed out there is no silver lining.

There are concerns that a roughly 100km stretch of the reef will have been damaged in Debbie’s wake.

But some thought the cyclone chopping up seawater and cooling its surface temperatures might help mitigate a current mass bleaching event that has occurred for an unprecedented second year in a row.

Hughes told Guardian Australia “the cyclone is really immaterial” in terms of bleaching as “it comes far too late and in the wrong place”.

He has done seven flights over the stretch of the reef to map the extent of bleaching, with the last at its southern edge around Heron Island cancelled because of the weather.

“We’ve been seeing significant mortality of freshly bleached corals near Cairns over the past month,” he said.

“The reefs are as severely bleached as they’re going to get because the summer is passing, and the cyclone’s too far south to help them recover any faster.

“So we needed this cyclone much further north a month ago.”

Updated

Despite warnings from police and other authorities, there have been instances of looting, according to the Daily Mercury.

It reports a Whitsunday restaurant, Banjo’s, was unscathed by the cyclone but looters allegedly broke in and stole thousands of dollars worth of alcohol, cash and a safe. They also allegedly destroyed security cameras. The chef, Damien Rogers, said he had made the discovery about 6am this morning.

Updated

Bowen structures 'dodged a bullet' but environment damaged: councillor

Detail has been scant about Collinsville, the inland mining town struck by its first category-two cyclone last night, given that the town has been cut off by floods and phone and power outages.

But Mike Brunker, the Whitsunday regional councillor who is originally from the town, said Debbie would have come as a shock and he had been told of widespread roof damage.

This included to the town’s “top pub”, the Central Hotel, which “had nobody in it but lost its roof” and the IGA supermarket, which had lost part of its roof.

“The houses are not built to [cyclone] standard. A lot of old houses. I think there’s a lot of roof damage,” Brunker told Guardian Australia. “Because all the phones are down, it’s a matter of just trying to keep in contact.”

Brunker, who tried to drive to Collinsville today but turned back because of the flooded road, said state emergency crews coming from the north would “probably shoot one straight out there”.

Bowen had perhaps dozens of houses that had lost their roofs.

“I can name about four that I’ve seen and that’s not getting around to have a look everywhere, so there will be dozens.”

But the worst fears about a wipeout of Bowen, whose housing stock includes a lot of places without cyclone rating, weren’t realised, Brunker said.

“As far structural damage goes, I think we dodged a bullet. But environmental damage as bad as anything we’ve ever seen.”

Brunker said he had seen army trucks in Bowen but there, as in Collinsville, it was now a case of “every man for himself until emergency services and so on get set up”.

Locals were flocking to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies again while others were getting out their chainsaws to start clearing the fallen trees that were everywhere.

“There’s people doing that because when you’ve got no power, you’re bored so you have to do something, you may as well be cleaning up your own yard.

“I just went in to the IGA and the crowd, I’ve never seen it so big.”

Damage seen in Bowen on Wednesday
Damage seen in Bowen on Wednesday. Photograph: Sarah Motherwell/AAP

Updated

This is Helen Davidson here, taking over from Christopher Knaus for the afternoon.

Teams from James Cook University are preparing to go into affected areas to begin assessing how buildings held up during the cyclone.

“Depending on when roads are open from flooding will depend on when we start our investigation of the performance (both good and bad) of buildings (homes, strata, sheds, etc),” said Dr David Henderson, director of the cyclone testing station at JCU.

“Activities [by the station teams] include investigations after wind events as well as research, testing and community education, aimed at ensuring that buildings designed to resist severe wind events are safe, economical and sustainable.”

Updated

Summary of today's developments

The extent of the damage caused by Cyclone Debbie is becoming clearer today, although authorities warn they still have not contacted some of the region’s cut-off communities. Here’s what we know so far:

  • No one is thought to have died in the cyclone itself, and reports of serious injuries are still limited. That may change as emergency services reach cut-off areas.
  • Ex-Cyclone Debbie is now a tropical low, which is moving inland to central Queensland. It is expected to move to the south-east of the state in coming days.
  • Heavy rainfall, particularly around Mackay, continues to pose major flooding risks. Flash flooding is occurring, and emergency services have conducted several swift-water rescues after motorists became trapped in floodwaters.
  • Roads across the coast and adjacent inland areas are cut off, either by debris or road damage. Motorists are being urged to stay off the roads, to avoid danger and to free up space for emergency services and the army.
  • Sugar cane crops, crucial to the local economy, have been flattened, although growers are still assessing what has been permanently lost.
  • Yachts have been ripped from their moorings at Shute Harbour, near Airlie Beach, and structures in the area have sustained significant damage.
  • About 63,000 homes remain without power. It might be more than a week before some areas are restored.
  • Concerns have been raised about the cyclone’s impact on the Great Barrier Reef.

I’m going to hand over now to Helen Davidson, who will continue to monitor developments this afternoon.

Updated

An Airlie Beach resident, Juliane Kasiske, has spoken to the ABC about her lucky escape from Cyclone Debbie.

She was sheltering in her bedroom but was forced to flee to her neighbour’s home as the winds worsened.

“As it got really bad, we heard the windows pop, and we felt the pressure on our ears,” Kasiske said.

“There was just a big bang, the wind came through the garage here and popped the back windows as well, all the doors popped out.

“It was like a big jet sound, like the turbines of a jet, it was just so noisy.”

Kasiske is now trying to work out whether she can still live in the home, and what possessions are salvageable.

Updated

The State Emergency Service has now received more than 1,000 requests for help, according to the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services deputy commissioner Mark Roche.

It is thought that no one was killed by the cyclone. Roche puts that down to preparedness and the community’s willingness to heed the advice of emergency services.

“The public have really listened to the calls we put out there and Queensland police service and other agencies have put out about safety and safety of individuals,” he said.

“They have listened and placed themselves in safe locations and we thank the community for that.”

Roche said authorities were still attempting to contact to isolated communities to make sure people were safe.

Updated

The Bruce Highway is flooded 10km north of Bowen.

Floodwaters are continuing to cut off roads and threaten communities. Mackay is of particular concern. The Bureau of Meteorology’s hydration manager, Victoria Dodds, said the Pioneer basin, which drains down to Mackay, has had 1,000mm of rain in 48 hours.

“To put that in context, we would normally expect to see 1,500mm to 2,000mm over a year,” Dodds said. “So huge rainfall totals recorded in that Mackay-Pioneer basin.”

The risk of flooding in the Bowen catchment appears to be reducing, she said. But there were major flood warnings for the Connors and Isaac river catchments, which are part of the Fitzroy basin.

Floodwaters block the road between Airlie Beach and Proserpine on Wednesday
Floodwaters block the road between Airlie Beach and Proserpine on Wednesday. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP
A local wades into water blocking the road from Airlie Beach to Proserpine
A local wades into water blocking the road from Airlie Beach to Proserpine. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP
Roads south of Bowen are inundated with water
Roads south of Bowen are inundated with water. Photograph: Sarah Motherwell/AAP

Updated

Readings from Bureau of Meteorology monitoring sites show the wind gust speed peaked at 263km/h at Hamilton Island, with lower speeds recorded at other areas in the region.

chart wind speed

For some context, the estimated highest speed from Cyclone Yasi in 2011 was 285km/h, but this was an estimate based on barometric pressure readings in Tully.

The cyclone resulted in wave heights over eight metres, with a monitoring buoy off the coast of Mackay peaking at 8.69 metres before suffering “critical damage”:

wave height

Updated

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning rainfall of 100mm an hour is being recorded in Mackay. A separate severe storm warning has been issued for the region.

Updated

The two fishermen whose ship ran aground off Whitsunday Island, Brian Burton and Sean Short, have spoken about their ordeal. The two men were forced to ride out the cyclone while stuck in their ship.

Burton said they had anchored and were ready for the cyclone but were not expecting it to make landfall so close.

“We were all set until it got to the 250km/h winds, and then no boat is going to hold anchor in that,” Burton told Channel Seven.

Short said: “Yeah it’s pretty rough, don’t want to do that again. So I think we’ll count that as a one-off and we’ll come back when it’s sunny.”

Updated

Police warn of extensive flash flooding around Mackay

Heavy rainfall is continuing to cause extensive flash flooding around Mackay. Police are urging motorists to stay off the road.

Updated

Ex-Cyclone Debbie is thought to have caused significant damage to the region’s sugar cane and other crops. The extent of damage is still unclear, and authorities are having difficulty contacting farmers in isolated areas. But from the pictures that are starting to emerge, it’s safe to say that farmers are facing some pretty tough times.

A tractor is seen in floodwater on a property south of Bowen on Wednesday
A tractor is seen in floodwater on a property south of Bowen on Wednesday. Photograph: Sarah Motherwell/AAP

A sugar cane grower and the chairman of Canegrowers Queensland, Paul Schembri, said the cane on his farm had been flattened.

“It is as if that cane has been knocked over by a steamroller,” he told the ABC.

“We are not surprised by that because this has happened in the past, but … can I make the point, most of that cane is obviously capable of being salvaged – we can take that to harvest.

“What we don’t know at this juncture is how much of the cane has been snapped off.

“That is the physical energy of the wind snapping the top of the cane off which actually kills the cane, so in the next few days we will do an assessment of the damage, but I think whilst it’s early days, we could confidently say that the damage will run into the tens of millions of dollars.”

Updated

Concerns raised about Great Barrier Reef impact

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s reef recovery director, Dr David Wachenfeld, is concerned about the cyclone’s impact. Wachenfeld told Fairfax Media that Cyclone Debbie was likely to have damaged reefs in its path, as Cyclone Yasi did in 2011.

“The primary concern will be the immediate physical damage in that central part of the storm with high wind speeds,” Wachenfeld said. “It’s had lots of time for the wave energy to be built up by the winds and for that wave energy to hit the tops of the reefs.”

The reef has already been hit hard by a major bleaching event.

Bleached coral picture.

Updated

Ergon Energy’s communications director, John Fowler, has urged those with solar systems to turn them off.

“They should have turned them off before the storm, they need to turn them off at the switchboard and the inverter,” Fowler told the ABC.

“The problem is they could still be generating power and the concern is it may come back into the fallen power lines. So that is one message they need to adhere and very quickly.”

Fowler outlined the process for restoring power. He said helicopters had been dispatched to assess the damage to the network. That would then feed into a restoration plan, which would prioritise restoring power to community infrastructure such as hospitals, nursing homes, council water treatment and sewage plants.

“But it is going to be a very slow process and the way we restore power is an important sequence,” he said.

Updated

Flooding has now cut off the Bruce Highway near the banks of the Burdekin river. The road is closed to all traffic at Home Hill, near Ayr.

Updated

Cars are negotiating fallen trees and debris on the road between Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour. Authorities are urging residents to keep off the roads.

Cars are negotiating fallen trees and debris on the road between Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour

Updated

Queensland Health has just issued this advice for staying healthy in the aftermath of a cyclone. It advises residents to:

  • Keep emergency departments for emergencies only
  • Be aware of food safety
  • Wear protective gear when cleaning up
  • Boil water until supplies are declared safe
  • Use ladders with caution
  • Protect from mosquito-borne diseases
  • Be aware of dangerous animals
  • Keep generators well-ventilated

Updated

Vision shows the Pioneer river, at Mackay, is swollen with floodwater. The water is moving at speed and carrying debris. A major flood warning has been issued for the river.

Mackay’s mayor, Greg Williamson, said flooding was occurring on streets in the township of Mirani, on the upper reaches of the river.

“We’ve got a really good system of early warnings along the river system so if the waters are rising to a dangerous level we should know very quickly,” Williamson told AAP. “We’re as prepared as we can be.”

Williamson said Wednesday’s high tide, at 1.30pm, was the time of the greatest concern.

“The high tide’s going to be a little test,” he said. “The good thing with the Pioneer river is it is a short river system, so if we do get floods they tend to be short-lived.”

Updated

Authorities are continuing to warn motorists to stay off the road. Flash flooding is occurring at numerous sites along the coast, including Proserpine and the outskirts of Bowen and Mackay. Major flooding is taking place along the Connors, Isaac and Pioneer rivers.

The Bruce Highway remains cut off in three locations, although crews are clearing trees from the roadway north of Bowen.

Updated

Emergency relief supplies are being loaded on to the Royal Australian navy’s HMAS Choules at the Port of Brisbane. The ship will deliver emergency stores, engineering and other specialist equipment to the impact zones in north Queensland. Two other ships, HMAS Canberra and Adelaide, were unable to assist owing to engine problems.

Emergency relief supplies are loaded on to HMAS Choules
Emergency relief supplies are loaded on to HMAS Choules

Updated

The heaviest rainfall in the past 24 hours was experienced at the Clarke Range, west of Mackay. There, 646mm fell between 9am Tuesday and 9am Wednesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning heavy rainfall will continue across the region as the tropical low moves south.

Updated

The force of Cyclone Debbie pushed this yacht up on to the bank at Shute Harbour, near Airlie Beach.

A stranded yacht

Updated

The popular tourist spot Hamilton Island experienced some of the worst of Cyclone Debbie. Wind gusts reached more than 260km/h. Thankfully, there are still no reports of injuries from the island. Emergency response teams are working to restore power and water.

Tourists who had planned holidays to Hamilton are being told to stay away for the time being.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull visited the crisis centre today and praised emergency services and the military for their efforts so far. He urged the private sector, banks, and insurance companies to pull together to support residents.

“Nature has flung her worst at the people of north Queensland and it’s now our job to make sure that every agency pulls together,” the prime minister said.

“There will be a lot of damage … particularly to the older buildings, older homes in particular. A lot of damage done now to recover, to clean up, to make power, restore power and make power lines safe.

“Above all, the important message is to stay safe and follow the advice of the authorities.”

Updated

More welcome news. The two men whose ship ran aground near Whitsunday Island have now been rescued. They are safe and well, police say.

“A police rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) was deployed and whilst alongside the stricken vessel, the men aboard were able to lower themselves down into the RHIB,” Queensland police said in a statement.

Updated

More images are emerging from Shute Harbour, near Airlie Beach. Yachts moored in the harbour have been smashed into rocks or sunk, and a local motel has been destroyed.

Council worker Brian Doyle inspects damage at Shute Harbour, Airlie Beach
Council worker Brian Doyle inspects damage at Shute Harbour, Airlie Beach. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPA
Locals inspect damage at Shute Harbour
Locals inspect damage at Shute Harbour. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPA
Dave McInerney inspects the damage to his motel at Shute Harbour
Dave McInerney inspects the damage to his motel at Shute Harbour. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPA
A sunken boat is seen at Shute Harbour
A sunken boat is seen at Shute Harbour. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPA
Locals inspect boats smashed agains rocks at the harbour
Locals inspect boats smashed agains rocks at the harbour. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPA

Updated

Just another quick word on the power outages. We know 63,000 homes are without power. But the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has warned that the power losses may continue for as long as a week. About 820 electricity workers are being deployed to try to restore power.

The state’s energy minister, Mark Bailey, said the workers had been pre-deployed to the north, south and inside the impact zone.

“What will happen, though, based on previous cyclones, is the assessments need to be made and what power workers are dealing with is water across roads – the Bruce Highway is cut in three places, just north of Bowen, at Airlie Beach and also south of Mackay,” Bailey said.

“In some places you have large trees wrapped up in live wires, so that work has to be done safely and we have to get access into areas as soon as we can. So what we’ll see in the next day or two is we might not get a lot of power work done.”

Updated

Some residents feared looters might attempt to take advantage of the cyclone’s aftermath. Police are deploying to affected communities and say they’re well prepared for looting.

Some shop owners have decided to send their own message to would-be looters.

Updated

We showed you some images earlier of yachts that Cyclone Debbie had tossed around on Tuesday near Airlie Beach. An SBS reporter, Stefan Armbruster, has just posted this footage of the scene to Twitter. The winds are clearly still strong around the Whitsundays.

Armbruster has tweeted a series of pictures showing the damage around Airlie Beach.

Updated

In welcome news, Queensland police say they still have no reports of injuries in the most severely affected areas of Bowen and the Whitsundays.

Updated

The Bureau of Meteorology is expecting the tropical low to move to south-east Queensland. It is warning that 150mm to 250mm of rain is forecast today, leaving a vast area of the state vulnerable to flooding. Rainfall will intensify to Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

A flood watch now covers a region between Ayr and the New South Wales border, stretching inland to the Queensland’s central highlands and the Darling Downs. Flash flooding has already forced two swift water rescues this morning, one at Proserpine, and another near Mackay. The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services commissioner, Katarina Carroll, urged people to stay off the roads, both to avoid flash flooding, and free up space for the army and emergency services.

“There’s already a lot of debris, there’s a lot of trees, there is a lot of water, and the situation is still quite dangerous out there,” she said. “But please, stay off the roads if you don’t have to be on them.”

Updated

Palaszczuk said 63,000 homes were still without power. Almost half of Mackay homes were without power. There was 75% power loss in Sarina, and homes were without power in Moranbah, Proserpine, Bowen and Airlie Beach.

Isolated communities across the coast were without phone service, she said.

“For many people this morning, they are waking up and they are seeing the devastation that has happened in their communities,” Palaszczuk said.

“Our hearts go out to them. There would be nothing more tragic than waking up and seeing walls that have come in from your houses, roofs that have gone off, and debris that is lying across your roads.”

“Our priority is to look after you, is to look after the families that have been deeply impacted by this horrific cyclone.”

Updated

Premier warns residents to stay off roads

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, is speaking at a media conference now.

“My main message today for residents on the Whitsunday coast is, please, stay off the roads,” she says. “We need you to stay off the roads because at 9 o’clock this morning, the ADF will be doing [reconnaissance], they will be looking at the structural damage which is happening on the Whitsunday coast, and we need to be able to get our emergency services personnel in as quickly as possible.”

Updated

The Bruce Highway is blocked in a number of places, emergency services say. If you’re in the region, and need more detail on road closures, you can find a list here or a map from Queensland Roads here. Keep in mind that emergency services are still trying to work out exactly where the damage is, and which roads are blocked, so these lists may not be comprehensive.

A State Emergency Services assistant commissioner, Peter Jeffrey, says specialist teams have been deployed to quickly assess damage across the region. That data will then be fed back to authorities, who will prioritise recovery efforts.

“We have teams, fire and emergency teams, that do rapid damage assessment, specially trained, and they will gather the data and that data will come back into one of our state systems, and we will then share that data with local government and other agencies so that we can organise and support the recovery effort,” Jeffrey says.

He suggests that severe damage from the cyclone appears to be low at this stage. He is hopeful it remains that way as crews continue to assess the hardest-hit areas.

“Look, what we are seeing is a limited amount of severe damage but there is a lot of moderate and minor damage as well,” he says.

“We are very hopeful that that severe damage stays low, but the size and the wind speeds that were associated with Debbie have the potential to have done a lot more damage.”

Updated

Heavy structural damage at Shute Harbour, south of Airlie Beach

The reporter James Reynolds has captured footage of heavy damage at Shute Harbour, south of Airlie Beach. The Shute Harbour motel had sustained serious structural damage. Shute Harbour’s boat terminal appears all but destroyed.

Updated

Heavy rainfall is causing major flooding across the region. The Bureau of Meteorology’s James Taylor said the heaviest rainfall was about 940mm, recorded in a location north of the Pioneer river, which runs south-west of Mackay. The rainfall had caused major flooding of the river. Moderate flooding is also expected in other regions between Bowen and Mackay.

Taylor said waves in excess of eight metres were recorded on buoys off the north Queensland coast. Cyclone Debbie caused a storm surge, he said, but the timing, at low tide, limited its scale.

“We actually did get a storm surge of 2.7 metres, but thankfully the crossing of the tropical cyclone occurred between high tide and low tide,” Taylor told the ABC.

“So Laguna Quays, we recorded a surge on top of the forecast tide of 2.7 metres, but luckily that only resulted in the height of the water there being around 0.5-1 metre higher than the highest astronomical tide, so that’s the storm surge, the rainfall, wave heights and winds at 263km/h at Hamilton that is a new record for Queensland.”

He said stronger winds and rain would be experienced in Brisbane. The biggest risk of winds in the city was gusts of about 120km/h.

“We don’t think we will see wind gusts stronger than that, but that’s certainly strong enough to bring down large limbs off trees and create some structural damage, so people should be tying down loose objects and preparing for the windy conditions as they come through,” Taylor said.

Updated

The Mackay mayor, Greg Williamson, has given an update on the situation in the city. It’s still experiencing strong wind gusts and rainfall. Williamson has told Channel Seven there was “significant damage” in his area but no real reports of damaged homes at this stage.

“We’ve had a significant amount of structural damage, just mainly trees, rubbish, and debris,” he says.

He says council workers still have not managed to reach the northern beaches area.

Updated

Offers of help are beginning to flow in from interstate. NSW is deploying a contingent of emergency services to help in the clean-up, according to the premier, Gladys Berejiklian.

“Rapid damage assessment teams will be deployed to Queensland today at 10am at the request of the Queensland government,” she said.

The ACT’s emergency services agency is sending its own team this morning,

Updated

More pictures are starting to come out of north Queensland now.

Cyclone damage in Bowen on Wednesday morning
Cyclone damage in Bowen on Wednesday morning. Photograph: Sarah Motherwell/AAP
More damage in Bowen
More damage in Bowen, which was left largely intact by the cyclone. Photograph: Sarah Motherwell/AAP
Bradley Mitchell inspects the damage to his uncle’s boat after it smashed against the bank at Shute Harbour, Airlie Beach
Bradley Mitchell inspects the damage to his uncle’s boat after it smashed against the bank at Shute Harbour, Airlie Beach. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP
A boat left high and dry at Shute Harbour
A boat left high and dry at Shute Harbour. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPA
A plane flipped by Cyclone Debbie at Bowen airport
A plane flipped by Cyclone Debbie at Bowen airport. Photograph: Sarah Motherwell/AAP

Updated

Nasa has released this stunning high-resolution shot of Cyclone Debbie, captured just as the eye of the storm made landfall. The image was taken by the Nasa-Noaa Suomi NPP satellite at 1.42pm Queensland time.

Satellite image of Debbie.

Updated

I mentioned a little earlier that a baby girl had been delivered at a Whitsundays ambulance station as Debbie tore through the region. The Queensland health minister, Cameron Dick, has just posted a photo of the new mother and daughter. The baby, Billiana, was delivered by a grad paramedic.

Updated

Nasa has released more footage of the view of Cyclone Debbie from space overnight. The footage, recorded from International Space Station’s live stream, shows Debbie as it makes landfall early on Tuesday afternoon. Skip ahead to the two-minute mark.

Updated

The Whitsunday mayor, Andrew Willcox, has an update on the situation in Bowen. He is urging people to stay inside, warning that power lines are down all over the town. Willcox said residents should assume the lines are still live.

“We’ve managed to get here fatality-free, so we definitely don’t want any fatalities in the mop-up,” he said.

Willcox said there wasn’t a lot of structural damage in the town but described it as looking “a bit like a war zone”.

Some images are emerging of damage in Bowen. These shots show damage to the Sky View hotel, although an AAP journalist, Sarah Motherwell, said the town had found itself largely intact.

Sky view hotel damage.
Sky view hotel damage.
Sky view hotel damage.

Updated

And just as I published that last post, news emerges that police have found the two missing men. The pair are safe and on board their vessel, according to police. The difficulty now is getting to them.

Updated

Police search for two men missing off Whitsunday Island

Police are searching for two men whose boat ran aground on rocks near Whitsunday Island last night. An aerial search is under way for the pair but the effort is difficult in the aftermath of the cyclone. Water police from the Whitsundays and Townsville cannot join the search until conditions are safe.

Police say the men were able to email their family in New South Wales, who then alerted police. Queensland’s Fire and Emergency Services commissioner, Katarina Carroll, said a lack of communications was complicating the search.

“Obviously there will be an aerial search in place today, and a lot of the difficulty we have here, of course, is with our communications,” she told the ABC.

“It’s difficult to really know what impact that has, so the police are looking for these people today and hopefully they are found today some time.”

Updated

Two heartwarming stories have emerged in Debbie’s wake. A woman gave birth to a girl in a Whitsundays ambulance station as Cyclone Debbie moved across the region. Flooding had cut off roads and prevented the woman from reaching the hospital.

“You know, out of all of this, to see a little miracle, I think brings a smile to a lot of faces and especially to all those people who have been working so hard overnight,” the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, told the ABC.

And the Townsville Bulletin has this story on an unlikely survivor of the storm. A drenched and battered cockatoo was found by the paper’s photographer, Alix Sweeney, as the cyclone’s eye moved over Airlie Beach. The cockatoo survived the night, and the paper has dubbed the bird a “little Aussie battler”, and named it “Debbie”.

Updated

More than 30,000 residents were evacuated from their homes as Cyclone Debbie headed toward the north Queensland coast. As they return home, authorities are expecting reports of damage and calls for SES help to increase significantly. The return of power to homes is also expected to lead to the number of requests for help increasing dramatically.

Queensland’s Fire and Emergency Services commissioner, Katarina Carroll, said her staff had conducted a quick walkthrough of Proserpine late on Tuesday. The damage was extensive.

“In just those two streets that my staff were in, there was devastation in terms of property damage in those areas, so we are expecting a lot of damage as we sweep through towns today,” Carroll told the ABC.

She said roads remained closed across the region. RACQ has a full list of the road closures at this link.

Reports out of Bowen suggest the town took a battering but emerged from it better than expected.

Damage in Bowen on Wednesday morning
Damage in Bowen on Wednesday morning. Photograph: Sarah Motherwell/AAP

Updated

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has given an update on what is known in the aftermath of Debbie. Authorities have been unable to get through to Hayman Island, in the Whitsundays.

All roads have been cut off around Bowen, Airlie Beach and Proserpine, and will take some time to clear.

Daydream Island is running out of water, while substantial damage has been reported on Hamilton Island. No injuries have been reported on Daydream Island or in Collinsville, Palaszczuk said.

The Insurance Council of Australia declared Cyclone Debbie a catastrophe on Tuesday, and warned that past cyclones had cost billions of dollars in damage.

Palaszczuk urged insurance companies to treat residents with decency and respect.

“There are going to be a lot of people who are upset, who have had their family homes damaged, and they need to have someone friendly on the other end of that phone call,” she told the ABC.

“These are people who have had their lives turned upside down. So I would hope that they do the right thing,” she said.

The ABC reporter Leonie Mellor is reporting some minor flooding in Mackay this morning.

Updated

Cyclone Debbie continues to pose threat, as authorities assess damage

Let’s recap the overnight events.

  • Cyclone Debbie has now been downgraded to a tropical low and has moved inland. The latest advice from the Bureau of Meteorology puts the tropical low 80km west-south-west of Collinsville. It is continuing to move west-south-west at 14km/h, and continues to bring rain, and winds of 55km/h with gusts to 85km/h near its centre.
  • The situation remains dangerous. Severe weather warnings are in place for Queensland’s central coast, Whitsundays, the central highlands and coalfields, Capricornia and parts of the central west and Maranoa and Warrego forecast districts.
  • Authorities continue to fear major flooding, as heavy rainfall continues to swell rivers across a broad region. A flood watch is current for the coastal catchment regions.
  • The state emergency service received about 700 calls for help, and is waiting for first light before responding. The army is also ready to help with the recovery efforts.
  • There are early reports of serious injuries, including to a man who was hurt by a wall collapse. Authorities are warning to prepare for further reports of injuries or deaths.
  • Phone service and power remains out for thousands of homes in the region. Power was lost to at least 50,000 homes on Tuesday afternoon. That means authorities are still waiting for reports of the extent of damage and destruction across the region.
  • Roads are cut off and closed all over the region. Downed power lines and trees have cut off access to some areas, making access difficult for emergency services.

Updated

As dawn breaks along the Queensland coast, the extent of damage and destruction caused by Cyclone Debbie is being revealed. Ex-Cyclone Debbie is continuing to pose a risk to residents, and authorities fear continuing rainfall and damaging winds will cause flooding and damage on Wednesday.

Follow our live coverage as authorities begin the mammoth clean-up effort and assess the extent of damage and injury caused by the storm. If it’s safe to do so, share your experience of Cyclone Debbie with us by sending photos or your story to christopher.knaus@guardian.co.uk.

Updated

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