Australia Weather News

Some people affected by Cyclone Debbie say they are frustrated they have not been able to return to their damaged properties in north Queensland.

About 100 people have been stuck all day at a road block at Sandy Gully on the Bruce Highway, 10 kilometres north of Bowen.

Many of them have homes or businesses in Bowen or further south, and want to assess the damage.

However, authorities did not want a mass of people driving into Bowen when the area remained a disaster zone, and only emergency vehicles were being let through.

But private vehicles were allowed to leave Bowen to travel north, despite driving through the same floodwaters on that road.

Chris Crowe owns a caravan park that has suffered severe damage in Airlie Beach.

He has an excavator, generators and fuel on a trailer he is towing behind his four-wheel drive.

He is desperate to get to his caravan park to start the clean-up.

"Business is your life and ours has been destroyed and I don't know what to expect when we get there — we are a stone's throw away but we just can't get in there," Mr Crowe said.

He understands why he has been stopped but is not happy.

"There is a lot of frustration here," Mr Crowe said.

"We are not stuck here for a danger issue — the water is only 300 millimetres deep. There have been lots of cars go through.

"They are picking and choosing and unfortunately we are not ones that have been picked or chosen."

He wants to get to the holiday park and start the recovery as quickly as possible.

"If we can get the park open, we will open it up to the SES and house them, but if we can't get in there for a few days ultimately I suppose it's going to be longer to get up and running, but we want to get in and help and help ourselves," Mr Crowe said.

At times frustrations boiled over with angry people abusing police officers at the roadblock.

It is unknown when the Bruce Highway will reopen to the public.

More than 150 roads have been closed due to floodwaters and debris between Mackay and Ayr.

RACQ spokesman Lauren Ritchie said some roads could be cut until at least Friday morning.

Clean-up will take weeks

The massive clean-up after Cyclone Debbie in north Queensland will take weeks, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, as flooded roads from heavy rain and debris hindered recovery efforts.

Ms Palaszczuk travelled to Bowen on Wednesday afternoon with Queensland Police Service Commissioner Ian Stewart and Brigadier Chris Field, who is heading the recovery operation.

She said she was thankful the damage in Bowen was not as bad as initially feared.

"Lots of trees down, there's fences down, we've seen the impact of roofs being blown off people's houses," she said.

"We're going down to Proserpine next — we expect there to be some more widespread damage, but we'll be looking at that very closely in the next few hours."

Ms Palaszczuk also pledged $1 million to four charities to help support cyclone-ravaged communities.

Access to Proserpine was cut for most of the day due to floodwaters - but roads reopened late on Wednesday.

The Army is in town and will set up an incident control centre on Thursday morning and will be providing assistance to the community from first light.

Weather hinders getting power back on

Power remains an issue, with tens of thousands of homes across the north still without electricity.

Energy Minister Mark Bailey said risk assessments must be done first, which could be a slow process.

"We've got to be able to get access into areas before we can get power back on," he said.

"We can't put our power workers at risk either, so what we'll see probably in the next day or two is we might not get a lot of progress on the power front until we can safely get that work done."

The Australian Defence Force will help with the recovery and a Navy ship is being loaded in Brisbane with engineering and humanitarian supplies and was heading for the Whitsundays on Wednesday night.

More than 70 vehicles and 270 personnel are on standby to assist with clearing roads and restoring communication.

Flood fears in Mackay

Heavy rain is hampering the clean-up in Mackay, while severe thunderstorms are swirling around the central coast and Whitsundays.

Flood alerts have been issued for rivers and catchments across the region.

The city's Pioneer River is again in flood after a torrential downpour in the wake of Cyclone Debbie.

It is the third time in a decade the river has broken its banks.

River levels were expected to peak at midnight, with residents sharing images of flooded streets on social media.

Mackay residents have been urged to conserve water with about half-a-day's supply left in reserves.

Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson said there were power issues with the city's treatment plants and pump stations.

"We have 14 sewerage pump stations at the moment without power and that means we are facing some pretty serious concerns with the operation of the community in general," he said.

Nearly 70 per cent of Mackay remains without power and authorities are pleading for patience.

Keith Brennan lost power on Monday but he is looking on the bright side.

"Not pretty, not pretty, but we're surviving — we've got a gas barbecue, the beer's cold, the wine fridge is still going— that's all that matters," Mr Brennan said.

Mr Williamson said crews could not work with the deluge happening right now.

"We can't work in these sorts of conditions — you've got to understand you can't have an Ergon guy up a pole trying to reconnect power when it's deluged with rain and we're still getting wind gusts up to 50 kilometres [per hour]," he said.

"We've got 51,000 properties in the Mackay Regional Council footprint and so 68 per cent of those properties are without power, so we're still struggling to get back on our feet up here, and the weather is not helping us do it."

Sunwater said Mackay's Kinchant Dam was currently at 119 per cent and has sent a warning to locals the spill-over could cause flooding.

Water Minister Mr Bailey said locals in Mirani and Eton south of the dam should be on alert.

"There's a couple of hundred residents south of the dam — it's not clear how many will be directly affected, it really will depend," he said.

"We haven't seen this amount of water come through the dam to this point — it's better to be safe than sorry and we're being highly cautious with this."

Hamilton Island airport reopens

Meanwhile, people can now leave cyclone-stricken Hamilton Island, with the airport operational again, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said.

The resort island bore the brunt of Cyclone Debbie on Tuesday with winds of more than 260 kilometres per hour, with extensive damage and some minor injuries.

"Hamilton Island's airport strip has just come online so we're able to evacuate people from Hamilton Island, but this is a slow process," she said.

"The Bruce Highway is still disconnected at three locations so getting people in and out of disaster affected areas is proving very difficult."

Donations step up

Meanwhile, donations have started pouring in, with the charity Givit so far raising $22,000 for cyclone-affected communities.

Communities Minister Shannon Fentiman said residents should know help is on the way.

"Any cleaning equipment, fresh water, generators, the gum boots, the shovels, the rakes — they're the things that we need right now," she said.

"In the coming days Givit have teams up on the ground working with our community recovery staff and on their website they will let people know exactly what's needed."