THE Police Commissioner of Queensland has revealed a tourist has died in a two-vehicle crash near Proserpine, with conditions caused by Cyclone Debbie a likely factor in the crash.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO WHEN CYCLONE DEBBIE HITS

Emergency services were called to a two vehicle crash at Shute Harbour Rd, Cannon Valley at about 8am Monday, where a 31-year-old female passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. The male driver of the same car was not injured.

Police Commissioner Ian Stewart told media that the woman was a tourist to the area and said conditions caused by tropical cyclone Debbie could have been a factor in the crash.

Please see attached image for our update on #cyclonedebbie pic.twitter.com/JCoqCROepk — Hamilton Island (@HamiltonIsland) March 27, 2017

About 25,000 residents of Mackay have this afternoon been asked to leave ahead of predicted tidal surges, with fears low-lying areas will be inundated.

There are also fears parts of Bowen could be wiped.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said wind gusts of up to 100km/h were already affecting the Whitsunday area as Cyclone Debbie bears down on Queensland.

“The cyclone is now tracking further south,” she said at a special 10am briefing.

The weather bureau upgraded the system to a Category 3 cyclone about 11am.

Meteorologist Bruce Gunn said the “very destructive” core of the cyclone is expected to be about 100km wide. He said the exact location and impact of the cyclone would become more precise as the system approached the coast.

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“It really depends on the final crossing point of the cyclone over the coast as to which areas are impacted. And it’s the time of the crossing that effects the storm inundation, if that coincides with the time of high tide ... we could see significant inundation,” he said.

Ms Palaszczuk said the evacuation area had been expanded to Bowen.

“This window of opportunity to leave is drastically closing,” she said.

Bowens NAB being boarded up. Apparently the town has run out of ply. #CycloneDebbie pic.twitter.com/aoifUz9YqP — Rachel Clun (@rachelclun) March 27, 2017

Ms Palaszczuk said the power would be switched off later today.

“Now is the time to charge your phone,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said residents should also have a battery operated radio to listen to updates.

Ms Palaszczuk said the winds in the Townsville area will be worse than Cyclone Yasi.

EVACUATION MAPS FOR TOWNSVILLE, BURDEKIN, WHITSUNDAY AND MACKAY LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS

“These winds are going to be severe and we are going to see structural damage,” she said.

All commercial flights in and out of Townsville Airport have been cancelled ahead of Tropical Cyclone Debbie.

All flights have been cancelled from 11.30am today, with the last departing flight being QF 2312 to Cairns.

There are no more scheduled flights operating into or out of Mackay Airport until further notice and the airport has commenced a partial shutdown, according to a tweet from Mackay Airport.

media_camera Tracking map for Cyclone Debbie from BoM issued at 2pm.

Surf Life Saving Queensland reports all beaches from Townsville to Sarina have been closed.

Residents in the path of tropical cyclone Debbie are being warned not to expect immediate emergency assistance once the storm hits the coast.

Commissioner Stewart said people will be notified when emergency services are no longer able to be outside assisting the public.

Mr Stewart said the Bruce Highway and other roads will progressively be closed from now.

Ms Palaszczuk said shelters were opening and evacuation buses were operating inside the warning zone.

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“We do have shelters now open at Bowen and Proserpine and they can take up to 700 people.

“The buses have arrived in Ayr Home Hill and they are transporting people to Cairns but what we are seeing is this window of opportunity to leave is drastically closing,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk confirmed extra supplies including food were already in the region ready for residents to use after the storm.

“We’ve had three freight trains that have been able to deliver food, once this cyclone passes there will be food available in IGA and Woolworths stocked there,” she said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull urged North Queensland residents in the path of TC Debbie who have been given evacuation orders to get out and stay safe.

media_camera Bowen Supa Iga was busy on Sunday morning as the community prepared for Cyclone Debbie.

Mr Turnbull said he spoke with Premier Palaszczuk this morning and the Australian Defence Force were already pre-positioning assets to assist with the response to the cyclone.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said anyone living in a story surge area needed to evacuate now.

“You can shelter from wind but you cannot shelter from (the) storm surge,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said if the cyclone was slow moving it could take up to 12 hours for help to get out to people because of the wind speeds.

Thousands of residents have been ordered to evacuate as Tropical Cyclone Debbie barrels towards the north Queensland coast, bringing 280km/h winds, flooding rain and a 4m tidal surge.

Residents in low-lying areas in Bowen, Proserpine and Airlie Beach were ordered to evacuate their homes with the monster storm due to intensify into a “very destructive” Category 4 system hitting a 300km stretch of coast on Tuesday at 6am.

The Bureau of Meteorology have specifically warned residents between Lucinda and Mackay of a dangerous storm tide as the cyclone crosses the coast on Tuesday morning.

Palaszczuk urges residents to evacuate Palaszczuk urges residents to evacuate

The sea is likely to rise steadily up to a level well above the normal tide, with damaging waves and flooding of some low-lying areas close to the shoreline as the cyclone approaches the coast on Tuesday. Large waves may also develop along the beachfront.

EVACUATION MAPS FOR TOWNSVILLE, BURDEKIN, WHITSUNDAY AND MACKAY LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS

The very destructive core of tropical cyclone Debbie is forecast to cross the coast between Rollingstone and Proserpine on Tuesday morning with wind gusts potentially to 230km/h near the centre.

Destructive winds and gales could extend inland to Charters Towers, Mount Coolon, and Pentland later on Tuesday as the weakening cyclone moves inland.

Abnormally high tides are expected to occur south of Proserpine on the high tides on Monday.

102 schools in Queensland’s north have closed as the region braces for tropical cyclone Debbie to make landfall.

The Department of Education has confirmed 75 state schools and 27 Catholic and Independent schools are closed today.

81 early childhood education and care services have also been closed in preparation for the storm.

Full list of school closures: http://closures.det.qld.gov.au/

Mackay threatened by Cyclone Debbie

Mayor Greg Williamson said Mackay, in just a couple of days, had gone from a peripheral variable in the Cyclone Debbie equation to a potential target.

“We are very much in the loop now and we are doing everthing possible to prepare for the worst,’’ Cr Williamson said early this afternoon.

“The rain has already begun falling and will probaby continue all night given the forecasts predict as much as 400mm.’’

Cr Williamson said many believed the Mackay district was far removed from the Whitsundays but the two regions were, in fact, close maritime neighbours.

“If the cyclone comes through the Whitsundays we are really only around 60 kilometres away and therefore we have to take this situation extremely seriously,’’ he said.

“And give the extent of this cyclone reaches for around 80 kilometres there are many areas which could be impacted.’’

‘Most significant cyclone since Yasi’

The Bureau has labelled Debbie the most significant cyclone to hit Queensland since Category 5 Cyclone Yasi in 2011.

Police and State Emergency Service workers went door-to-door urging residents in “red zones”, which are likely to be go under in a predicted storm tide, to pack belongings and find safety with friends or family on high ground.

But there was little sign of a mass exodus at ground zero sites in the eerily calm Bowen yesterday as residents told how they planned to ignore the evacuation order and ride out the storm in their own homes.

SES controller David Thicker said most of the schools and houses in town were built before 1985 and were unlikely to withstand the cyclone.

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Darrell Locke, 62, who lives in a red zone at Queen’s Beach in Bowen, said he had seen out six cyclones and had no plans to go anywhere.

“This’ll be the biggest cyclone we’ve ever seen but we’re all boarded up and will stick it out,” he said.

Big 4 park managers Randy and Karlene Peebles told how they had evacuated two dozen caravan owners, many headed inland, but they themselves plan to stay in their waterfront home in the red zone.

media_camera Jan Bridges tells a police officer she will not evacuate her house, situated in a low lying of Ayr, south of Townsville. Picture: Dan Peled

“It’s going to be intense, but we’ve got nowhere else to go,’’ Mrs Peebles said.

“I’m getting scared because of the ferocity of it. If we get a 4m tsunami that will be as high as our second-storey. It looks very eerie out to sea.

“It is dead calm, but you can see the clouds are getting darker and trouble is brewing.’’

Cyclone first-timer mother-of-three Venessa MacFarlane, of Bowen, was last night moving to an empty rental house in a safe zone as authorities warned her seaside house was likely to go underwater.

“Everything we own is in there. It is heartbreaking to think we could lose it all,’’ she said.

Anger at locked down cyclone shelters

Cyclone shelters in Bowen and Proserpine, with a capacity of 800, are due to open to their doors today.

Outraged Whitsunday MP Jason Costigan slammed authorities for shutting tourists out of cyclone shelters last night.

“We’ve got backpackers turned away from cyclone shelters that are locked up like Fort Knox,’’ he said.

“Where are they supposed to go?”

English tourists Katie Gathercole, 22, and Becky Veater, 24, in Bowen were “praying for their lives”.

media_camera Woolworths in Ayr two days before Cyclone Debbie is expected to hit the coastline.

“I’m genuinely scared,’’ Ms Gathercole said.

“We’ve never had to brace for a natural disaster like this and now some backpackers can’t get into these cyclone shelters. It is very unsettling.’’

Evacuation directions issues

Overnight, the Whitsunday Council and Townsville and Burdekin Local Disaster Management Groups ordered a police-enacted evacuation of designated low-lying areas ahead of Cyclone Debbie making landfall.

An Emergency Alert issued at 9pm by the Burdekin Local Disaster Management Group said communities are expecting impact from a dangerous storm tide caused by Tropical Cyclone Debbie.

Evacuations are directed in Alva Beach, Groper Creek, Jerona, Wunjunga and some areas of Rita Island. Residents are to seek shelter out of coastal areas by 10am Monday 27 March 2017.

Residents living in the Cape Cleveland area – including Cungulla and Cleveland Palms are also directed to evacuate.

Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services and Minister for Corrective Services, Mark Ryan has declared a disaster situation a directed evacuation of these areas has commenced.

If your property is located in these areas, you should finalise your cyclone preparations and packing of your evacuation kit and evacuate the coastal communities by Monday morning.

Burdekin Councillor Lyn McLaughlin advised that residents should seek shelter with friends or family in safer places, to remove yourself from the Storm Tide risk.

“If you are unable to find alternative accommodation, the Place of Refuge at the Ayr Showgrounds will be opened on Monday 27 March, 2017 at 8am as a place of last resort.”

People who have no other alternative accommodation can call the Disaster Coordination Centre on 1800 738 541 for advice.

The 8pm Bureau of Meteorology update said the cyclone is expected to intensify into a category 3 system this evening and is likely to make landfall as a category 4 system just south of Ayr about 6am on Tuesday.

Destructive winds and gusts over 125km/h may develop between Ayr and Mackay on Monday morning before extending northwest to Lucinda.

Residents between Rollingstone and Mackay are being advised to be prepared for a dangerous storm tide as the cyclone crosses the coast.

The sea is predict to rise well about the normal tide with damaging waves and flooding in low-lying are close to the shore as the cyclone approaches the coast on Tuesday.

Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor Andrew Willcox said residents should seek shelter with friends or family in the blue or white zones.

“If you are unable to evacuate, the Cyclone Shelters in Bowen and Proserpine will be opened on Monday as a last resort.

“The cyclone shelters have capacity for 800 people each and are only available to those people at highest risk from cyclone effects that have no other option,” he said.

Mr Willcox said residents in the yellow zone need to be ready to evacuate if directed.

“Leaving evacuation until Monday may mean evacuation routes are flooded and residents may not be able to leave the area,” he said.

Speaking to media after an emergency services briefing on Sunday morning, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said modelling was still being done on the flood threat to communities, with better forecasts expected on Monday morning around exactly where Cyclone Debbie will hit.

“It’s going to actually depend on where the cyclone crosses and the time that it crosses at to whether or not there will be a tidal surge,” she said.

“We are doing modelling at the moment, we are conveying that modelling to the local disaster management committee and if people do need to move they will be told and they must move.”

media_camera Townsville residents fill sandbags in preparation for Cyclone Debbie. Picture: Ian Hitchcock

Ms Palaszczuk said it is predicted the Whitsunday and Mackay region will be impacted by the winds first and foremost.

“All of the charter boats in the Whitsunday region have been secured, the ports have been closed.

“There are some remote islands that we are paying particular attention to ... so we are focused on some of these small communities that don’t have any chess to shelter and we will be advising them to move,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said preparations are in place for servicing all affected areas with energy, fuel and other support.

“In relation to energy we have over 800 power workers ready in the region, we’ve sent 75 further energy workers from the southeast today and another 130 will be going up tomorrow,” she said.

media_camera Cyclone Debbie disaster briefing at the Townsville Disaster Co-ordination Centre. Picture: Liam Kidston

Ms Palaszczuk said schools from Ayr to Proserpine will be closed from Monday due to the escalating winds.

She said the action had to be taken for safety, with winds expected to intensify as Cyclone Debbie becomes a Category 3 storm.

Originally published as One dead as Debbie heads south