"This is something that they have never seen before as well, going from a low pressure system to a (Category) 1 all the way up to a 5," she said in Yeppoon on Saturday afternoon. Homes in Yeppoon damaged by Tropical Cyclone Marcia. Credit:Kristina Costalos/Ten News "They'd never seen this in their lifetime, so this was a rare event. "Now, they're going to go back and look through all the research and try to work out how that happened so quickly. "But can I just assure everyone, the Bureau of Meteorology, they did everything that they possibly could and they were getting that information out to residents as soon as that information came to hand."

Ms Palaszczuk travelled to central Queensland on Saturday afternoon to receive briefings from emergency responders and inspect the damage. The 8pm Friday tracking map for Tropical Cyclone Marcia. Credit:Bureau of Meteorology Standing outside a ruined house in Yeppoon, the Premier said she had spoken with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and requested army assistance, as the rebuilding effort was beyond local capabilities. "What we can see is right up and down this street and around this community, is the absolute complete devastation," Ms Palaszczuk said. "These families just want to rebuild their homes and get back in and that's what we have to do.

"We need to make sure that we do that as quickly and as thoughtfully as possible." Ms Palaszczuk said it was likely that power would be restored to the region earlier than first thought. "What we are seeing is some early signs that the power will start coming on very shortly, so that is encouraging," she said. "But, it will be gradual, so once again people do need to be patient, because it may not be their home that comes on straight away. "Our priority is to make sure that we've got the generators coming in to both of the communities, to make sure that they can get those essential services up and running."

Further south, fears three teenagers feared washed away in a flood north of Brisbane on Saturday turned to relief on Saturday afternoon when they turned up safe and well. A police helicopter, multiple swift water rescue crews and police on the ground had been involved in an intensive search where the boys were last seen, near Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. Localised flooding was reported across south-east Queensland, but Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the city was fortunate to have missed out on the forecast 120km/h winds. Still, the Queensland capital was not completely unscathed. "We have had very little trees and vegetation come down," Cr Quirk said.

"…We are on the tail end of these cyclonic conditions and Brisbane has coped pretty well. "There has been some pretty high creek levels, but by and large, we have coped pretty well." More than 190,000 sandbags were given out to Brisbane residents, but few instances of serious flooding had been reported. As of Saturday evening, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services crews had responded to about 870 TC Marcia-related incidents. Two properties had been destroyed, 45 were severely damaged, 55 had "moderate" damage and 181 had minor damage.

SES crews received more than 5900 requests for assistance, 3900 of which had been completed as of 5pm Saturday. * If you have weather pics you would like to share, please email them to scoop@brisbanetimes.com.au, text them to 0414 284 637, or share them via Facebook. Want more stories like this? Follow our Facebook feed.