Cyclone Debbie's eye reaches coast; BOM downgrades system to category three
Updated
Tropical Cyclone Debbie has been downgraded to a category three system, having made landfall along the north Queensland coastline near Airlie Beach earlier this afternoon as a slow-moving category four system.
Key points:
- Cyclone began crossing coast between Bowen and Airlie Beach as a category four system
- Cyclone downgraded to a category three about 3:00pm
- For more information, tune in to 101.1 FM (Mackay), 89.9 FM (Airlie Beach) or 630 AM (Townsville)
One man has already been seriously injured in the storm, and emergency services fear more reports of damage, injury, and even deaths, are still to come.
The State Emergency Service has already received hundreds of calls for help, however it is still too dangerous for crews to venture outside.
The cyclone, currently 25 kilometres west of Proserpine, is producing destructive winds of 120 kilometres per hour and gusts up to 165kph.
It is forecast to move slowly south-west over the next 12 to 18 hours before curving to a more southerly track over inland Queensland.
At a media briefing this afternoon, Queensland Police Service Commissioner Ian Stewart said the man was badly hurt when a wall fell on him.
"We need to understand we are going to get lots of reports of damage and injury, if not death, and we need to be prepared for that," he said.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned residents in the path of the cyclone to continue to stay indoors, with strong winds expected to continue for several hours.
"Our emergency services personnel cannot go out onto the roads at the moment due to the dangerous conditions," she said.
"The eye of the storm is of course the most dangerous, those winds around there are escalating.
"We're going to see the impact of Cyclone Debbie for the next three to five days as it travels down the coast and these winds can even end up as a low-pressure system right along the coast of the south-east corner here."
The BOM said destructive winds could extend further north-west along the coast to Ayr and to adjacent inland areas, including Collinsville and Mount Coolon late today and into the evening, but were no longer expected in Townsville, Charters Towers, Mackay or Sarina.
Ergon Energy spokesman Brett Judge said more than 45,000 properties were without power with that number expected to rise.
"We have to get the all-clear from emergency authorities before sending crews out to assess the damage," he said.
He said hospitals, schools and emergency services would be given priority when work began.
He also urged residents to call Ergon if they saw powerlines down or problems with solar panels on roofs.
Debbie is expected to be downgraded to a category two system later tonight.
'We've got water coming down the hallway'
Earlier today, ABC reporter Jonathan Hair was sheltered in Airlie Beach when the cyclone's eye wall started to affect the area.
"It's really, really loud. That's the only way to describe it. I want to say it's terrifying just because you know what it is and you know how powerful it is and you know the winds are going upwards of 100kph to 200kph and slamming into your hotel room," he said.
"This is a fairly secure hotel, it's made of concrete. It was built recently, it's cyclone-rated, but at the same time, it's still blown gutters off roofs, doors off the side of the wall — it's blown ceiling fans off the ceiling.
"I haven't been outside because we're in lockdown, but we can see some yachts that have broken their mooring and run into each other down at the Port of Airlie Beach."
Sue from Proserpine told ABC Radio parts of their neighbour's roof had been flying off and smashing their windows.
"We've got three broken windows now so the rooms are totalled. We've got water coming down the hallway from those rooms," she said.
"The doors are shaking, the interior doors to those rooms ... we've got water coming down all inside the sliding windows, it's just gushing and I've been mopping and mopping and I'm running out of towels."
Sue said she was with her husband, but did not know if they were safe: "I'm in the safest place but that doesn't mean I'm safe. I'm in a very small bathroom."
Mackay Regional Council Mayor Greg Williamson told ABC News 24 he was surprised to hear some people were surfing.
"It puts everybody else, the agencies, life at risk when you've got to go and rescue them," he said.
The eye of the storm
Eye: The centre of the cyclone, an area characterised by light winds, fine weather and often clear skies
Eye wall: A dense wall of cloud that surrounds the eye. It tends to be the part of the cyclone with strongest winds and heaviest rainfall
Core: The centre section of the weather system where conditions are most severe
Read more about tropical cyclones.
Long-time Hamilton Island resident and business owner Gail Harvey described the size of the cyclone and severity of the winds as "horrendous".
"My ears have been popping from time to time and my head has been quite heavy with the air pressure, so it's just a matter of being patient and riding it out and then the big clean-up," she said.
"I'm actually tucked away in my unit, which I have been for over 24 hours now … it's very protected. We've got a hill behind us which protects us from the south, and we face north-east, so a very protected little area of the island."
But Ms Harvey said she was worried about her water-sport business and their vessels in the water.
"We pulled out three or four of them and put them into sheltered area, but the bigger boats we stripped all the equipment and tied them down quite securely," she said.
Charlie, also on Hamilton Island, said the trees were blowing about wildly.
"It's just like freight trains coming through left and right," he said.
"The place is just shaking continuously."
Tidal surge estimation lowered
The cyclone could take up to 18 hours to pass.
The BOM warned that between 150mm to 500mm of rain could fall today.
A flood warning has been issued for the Proserpine River, while a moderate flood warning is current for Bowen's Don River, and a minor to moderate flood levels are possible on the Pioneer River in Mackay.
Premier Palaszczuk said the tidal surge was expected to be less than two metres, which is on the low side of what the BOM had been predicting.
About 25,000 people were urged to evacuate from low-lying areas of Mackay on Monday night to avoid the storm surge and Ms Palaszczuk stood by that decision, saying it was important to err on the side of caution.
She is concerned about a second tidal impact later tonight.
"It's the largest evacuation that I can remember in this state, of some 25,000 people being asked to move," she said.
"But I would rather do that ... rather than put people's lives at risk."
Topics: cyclones, disasters-and-accidents, cyclone, weather, emergency-incidents, emergency-planning, qld, mackay-4740, townsville-4810, ayr-4807, bowen-4805, proserpine-4800
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