Angry clouds warn of Cyclone Debbie which has been forming off the coast of Queensland state over recent days and is expected to make landfall today.

TOWNSVILLE, AUSTRALIA Thousands of people, including tourists, were evacuated yesterday, as northeast Australia braced for a powerful cyclone packing destructive winds, with warnings of major structural damage and surging tides.

Cyclone Debbie has been forming off the coast of Queensland state over recent days, the Bureau of Meteorology said, and is expected to make landfall as a category-four storm - on a scale of five - after daybreak today.

Residents, who have been sandbagging and boarding up homes, were told to prepare for the worst storm to pummel the state since Cyclone Yasi in 2011, which ripped houses from their foundations and devastated crops.

"This is going to be a nasty cyclone," said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, adding that structural damage and power outages were likely.

"These wind gusts are going to be absolutely huge and my primary concern is making sure that families are safe."

So far more than 3,500 people have been evacuated between the towns of Home Hill and Proserpine, around 100km south of Townsville, a tourist hotspot used to access the Great Barrier Reef.

Another 2,000 in the coastal town of Bowen were also on the move, Ms Palaszczuk said, with cyclone shelters available for those with nowhere else to go.

Thousands more in low-lying areas of Mackay were urged to head for higher ground amid fears the storm could cause a tidal surge up to 2.5 metres.

Debbie is currently a category three cyclone, but is expected to build to a four by the time it crosses land somewhere between Townsville and Proserpine, with wind gusts of up 280 kmh near the centre, the meteorology bureau said.

"Storm surge is also a risk factor and, if the cyclone crosses the coast around high tide, this will enhance these effects," it said.

Local ports and more than 100 schools have been closed.

Ms Palaszczuk pleaded with residents to do as emergency service personnel asked, amid reports some were refusing to leave, an appeal echoed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

"If you have received an official evacuation order, you and your family must leave immediately," he said.

The federal government said it was ready to provide immediate assistance in the aftermath, with a disaster relief ship en route from Sydney and navy helicopters and planes on standby.

"We are ready and able to respond to this emergency in support of civilian emergency authorities and the residents of northeastern Queensland once the full impact of Debbie is known," said Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin. </s> Australia's east coast is currently being battered by Cyclone Debbie. And with record floods expected, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated as authorities brace for damages of hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming days.The Insurance Council of Australia has already declared both the Queensland and northern New South Wales regions as disaster zones, with estimated damages of up to Aus$1 billion ($762 million).Almost 100,000 homes have been left without power and evacuees are unsure of what to expect once the storm finally passes late next week. Many are predicting that Debbie will be the worst tropical storm to hit the area in a century.The disaster zone stretches 1,000 km (600 miles) from Queensland's Gold Coast tourist strip to the farmlands of New South Wales state, and mass evacuations have already taken place though many have been left stranded due to severe floods and high winds."By Wednesday, we will be at peak flooding in Rockhampton [Queensland]," Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said, as cited by AFP. "It will be a gradual rise, so I encourage people to move now."While rescue efforts are ongoing, weather conditions have hampered emergency services as the tropical cyclone rages on.Category four Cyclone Debbie hit northeastern Australia on Tuesday, with sustained winds of up to 158 - 198 km/h (99 - 130 mph) and extremely powerful and destructive gusts reaching speeds of up to 226 - 280 km/h according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology </s> Authorities ordered the evacuation of large parts of a town of more than 25,000 people in eastern Australia Thursday as a storm system generated by a powerful cyclone that pummeled the northeast two days ago swept down the coast with heavy rain.

Cyclone Debbie hit as a category four storm in the north of tropical Queensland state Tuesday, smashing tourist resorts, bringing down power lines, flattening cane fields and shutting down coal mines.

“This severe weather system that began with Cyclone Debbie and is tracking down the coast is causing havoc across our state,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters in the state capital, Brisbane.

The cyclone was downgraded to a tropical low Wednesday but it was driving squalls with torrential rain across a 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) stretch of Australia’s east coast, swelling rivers and prompting widespread flood warnings.

In Lismore in the north of neighboring New South Wales state, the State Emergency Service told residents to leave because weather forecasts predicted the town’s worst flood in nearly 20 years.

The rural hub in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales is home to at least 25,000 people.

Further north, Queensland’s government closed more than 2,000 schools as sustained heavy rainfall brought flash floods to the Gold Coast tourist area and Mackay further north.

In the cyclone-hit tropical north, the poor weather has slowed what was expected to be a lengthy cleanup operation.

Military helicopters, ferries and planes brought hundreds of holidaymakers stranded on resort islands in the storm’s path to the mainland, where tens of thousands more people were still without power.

Resorts along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday coast bore the brunt of the storm Tuesday with wind gusts stronger than 260 kph (160 mph).

About 2,500 insurance claims have been filed, but Queensland’s top two insurers, Suncorp Group Ltd and RACQ, said it was too early to put a dollar figure on the damage.

One female tourist was killed in a car crash Monday that police said was the result of wild weather as Cyclone Debbie approached. Another two people were injured as the storm passed through. </s> Flooding in the wake of Cyclone Debbie, which barreled into Australia's northeast coast on Tuesday, has displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes, cut power to at least 100,000, and on Friday led authorities to fear that some might have drowned in the rising waters.

The previous day some towns in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland had received three times the amount of rain they would normally get in a month, the BBC reports .

"There could be people overnight that perished in that flood, we don't know at this stage," Mark Morrow of the New South Wales State Emergency Service told the BBC. "There could be some very distressing news."

Australia's Federal and State governments declared five areas in New South Wales as natural disaster zones and major flood warnings remained active on three local rivers. Central and southeastern Queensland towns were also inundated, with swollen rivers in Queensland expected to pose a continued threat over the coming days, The Guardian reports .

Damage assessments are ongoing in northern Queensland, where the Category 4 Cyclone Debbie made landfall earlier this week. Of about 2,000 assessments already carried out, authorities determined the cyclone had rendered 270 properties unlivable. </s> BRISBANE: Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from towns in two Australian states as authorities warned Friday there could be deaths from severe flooding caused by ex-tropical cyclone.

Category four Cyclone Debbie hit northeastern Australia on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie Beach in Queensland state, ripping up trees, washing boats onto land and causing widespread damage.

Debbie was downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked southeast, but continued to pack damaging gusts and dump huge amounts of rain all the way down the eastern coast to New South Wales state, south of Queensland, and Sydney.

Lismore near the NSW coast was hard hit, with the State Emergency Service (SES) warning of three-metre (9.8-feet) high flood levels in the town.

“Overnight we had about 130 flood rescues, most of which services were unable to get to. So… as we start to go out and try to find people that made those calls overnight, there could be some very distressing news,” SES acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Morrow told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“There could be people overnight that perished in that flood, we don’t know at this stage.”

Other towns subject to evacuation orders include Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah.

Further north in Queensland, the popular tourist city of Gold Coast and other nearby regions were also inundated by water.

Bureau of Meteorology regional director Bruce Gunn said there had been widespread rain of between 100-300mm falls over the last two days in southeast Queensland where the Gold Coast is located.

“In terms of what happened in the last 24 or 48 hours, we have seen some pretty big rainfall totals,” he told Brisbane’s Courier Mail.

“There is still that strong risk around the Gold Coast.”

In the areas hit by Debbie, including Bowen, Mackay and the Whitsundays, some 50,000 people were still without power, Queensland officials said.

The military has mobilised 1,300 soldiers to help assess the full extent of damage and aid the clean-up, with helicopters and planes deploying to restore infrastructure and supply emergency food, water and fuel. – AFP </s> After battering the Whitsunday Islands, Category 4 Cyclone Debbie made landfall in Australia's northern Queensland Tuesday, bringing strong winds and the threat of storm surges.

Residents in the coastal town of Bowen, which is in the direct path of the cyclone, were being warned to stay indoors and " bunker down ." About 34,000 residents in the area have lost power, according to government owned energy provider Ergon Energy.

The day before, Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had called in the country's defense force to assist in emergency response and 25,000 people living in north Queensland had been told to evacuate in preparation for what could be the worst storm to hit the coast since Cyclone Yasi in 2011, the Guardian reports .

“Don’t wait until tomorrow because you will not be able to move probably past midnight tonight,” Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said in a briefing Monday.

Cyclone Debbie is expected to trigger tidal surges that could inundate the low-lying coastal areas, and officials have warned of flooding and potential damage to buildings. “We do believe there will be significant structural damage, significant flooding. There will be electrical wires down and the community just need to ride out this storm,” The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services deputy minster, Mark Roche, said.

The cyclone passed over the Whitsunday Islands early Tuesday morning local time, hammering the island of Hamilton with wind speeds of up to 263km per hour. "The winds are absolutely howling, it sounds like a freight train coming through or a jet engine right on top of you just screaming," a reporter on Hamilton Island told the Sydney Morning Herald . </s> The storm is set to intensify from a category three to category four cyclone before it makes landfall near the town of Ayr on Tuesday morning local time (late Monday ET).

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Monday morning that 3,500 residents had already been evacuated.

A further 2,000 people have been ordered to evacuate in the Bowen area, as the cyclone has tracked further south than originally predicted, she added.

Some residents are refusing to leave their home, Palaszczuk said, with police going door to door Monday in a final attempt to get people to safety. "This is going to be a nasty cyclone," Palaszczuk told press Monday morning. "There is no time for complacency ... the window of opportunity to leave is drastically closing. I am just pleading to everyone, please, listen to authorities. This is about your safety, it is about the safety of your family and the safety of your children." Cyclone Debbie is the largest storm to hit Queensland since the category five cyclone Yasi in 2011, which ripped homes from their foundations and destroyed farmland. Debbie could end up being as severe as Yasi, Palaszczuk warned Monday. John D Ginger, research director at the Cyclone Testing Station at James Cook University, said that coastal buildings were most at risk. "Houses in low-lying coastal regions ... and are subjected to storm surge, will be vulnerable to significant damage," he said. The timing of cyclone Debbie's expected landfall coincides with a 12-foot (3.65-meter) high tide in Bowen, one of the highest tides of the year, according to CNN affiliate 7 News. "If you are in a storm surge zone and you are directed to leave -- you must leave. You cannot shelter from a storm surge," Queensland police tweeted Monday. If you are in a storm surge zone and you are directed to leave - you must leave. You cannot shelter from a storm surge. #CycloneDebbie — QPS Media Unit (@QPSmedia) March 27, 2017 The severe weather has already claimed the life of a 31-year-old woman after dangerous conditions were linked to a fatal car crash Sunday night near the town of Proserpine, Queensland police commissioner Ian Stewart said. Over 1,000 emergency service workers have been sent to the region in preparation, and all schools remain closed until further notice, 7 News reported. </s> As Tropical Cyclone Debbie strengthens off the coast near Townsville in north Queensland, residents are being warned to prepare for the worst storm to hit the state since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.

Follow all the updates in our live blog or read the full story. </s> QUEENSLAND, Australia – Some Queenslanders didn’t take police warnings to stay out of flood waters very seriously — until a bull shark washed up in the street.

Northeastern Australia is still dealing with the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie, which swept across the Queensland coast on Tuesday, causing widespread damage with winds up to 114 mph.

It has since been downgraded to a low pressure system but is still moving slowly down the eastern coast, dumping many inches of rain.

No deaths have been recorded so far, but areas of southeast Queensland have been hit with extensive flooding.

Australian emergency services have repeatedly warned people to stay out of the flood waters, after photos and videos emerged of locals playing in flooded streets, and even doing some surfing.

But the discovery of a huge dead bull shark in floodwaters near Ayr, just south of Townsville, is likely to give some residents pause.

The photo was taken by emergency service crews checking on flooded roads in the area. Queensland Fire & Emergency were among those to tweet out the discovery, saying, “Think it’s safe to go back in the water? Think again!”

Cyclone Debbie slammed into the Far North Queensland coast as a Category 3 cyclone, the most powerful to hit the region since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.

The International Space Station captured the swirling clouds in the hours before Debbie hit.

All schools in southeast Queensland were closed on Thursday and Friday as the storm continued its journey south.

Social media showed local children taking full advantage of the day off, swimming and playing in the heavy rain.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said heavy rainfall is expected to continue for about the next 24 hours and some residents were preparing sandbags to avoid any further flood damage to their properties.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called for residents affected by flooding and storms to stay indoors and reassured those already affected that help was on the way.
More than 25,000 people are evacuated from the city of Mackay, Queensland, ahead of Cyclone Debbie which is expected to make landfall in northern Queensland tomorrow. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology warns that Cyclone Debbie will be the worst storm to hit Queensland since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.