Cyclone Debbie batters northeast Australia

The storm cut power supplies to more than 63,000 people.

“It’s been absolutely smashed”.

The storm earlier pounded the Whitsunday Islands, with gusts of 263 km/h recorded at Hamilton Island while the jetty at Daydream Island was virtually washed away. “There was loads of wind, trees falling down and windows blown out in the next room and we’ve got no food left”.

“This is a unsafe cyclone”, said Ms Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Premier of Queensland.

Numerous nation’s top tourist attractions were hit by winds clocked at over 260 km per hour, with over 200 tourists and 50 to 60 staff still on Daydream Island stranded and running low on supplies, while Hayman Island has yet to be contacted. On Airlie Beach, detritus and debris could be seen hurtling through the air in videos posted on social media.

Emergency service crews, who took more than 3,000 calls for help, rescued dozens of people from floodwaters, with some plucked from roofs and tops of cars.

Around 50,000 homes are without power, as a result of cyclone Debbie Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart reported the news. The Australian Insurance Council has rated the category 4 cyclone “a catastrophe”.

“We have put in place the biggest pre-deployment of the Australian Defence Force in advance of a natural disaster”, he said.

Hundreds of hectares of sugarcane crops had been flattened, Dan Galligan, chief executive of industry body Canegrowers, said in a statement.

Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia suspended flights to and from the region and said planes may also be grounded on Wednesday, although Townsville airport said it would reopen. North Queensland Bulk Ports said the Port of Mackay remains closed after a breakwater was damaged.

BHP Billiton and Glencore halted work at their coal mines in the storm’s path.

At 3am on Wednesday morning the Bureau of Meteorology downgraded Debbie out of the cyclone category to a tropical low, bringing sustained winds of 55km/h with gusts of up to 85km/h.

Only two injuries were reported, police said.

Farmer Bill Atkinson, whose son is the fourth generation of cane growers in his family, said an initial assessment of their crop near Airlie Beach was “sad”.

She was delivered in an ambulance station in Cannonvale, Queensland, a town hit hard by the category four storm.

Dave Mcinnerney inspects the damage to his motel at Shute Harbour, Airlie Beach, Australia.

Among the longer-term concerns was further damage to the Great Barrier Reef, which has already been seriously degraded by warming waters.

Heavy rain and damaging winds are said to continue thrashing Queensland for hours to come, as locals digest the extent of the damage.

On Hamilton Island, Airlie Beach and areas north of Cape Hamilton, roofs have been ripped from buildings and boats were tossed like toys.

Driving the main street of the cyclone-ravaged mainland town of Bowen, Whitsunday Mayor Andrew Wilcox warned residents and business owners to prepare for devastation.

“We need to be prepared for that”. The storm’s winds gusted to 160 mph and preliminary reports suggest that around 30 inches of rain fell over the course of 24 hours in some locations.

“I’m shattered emotionally and physically”.