My nephew and his wife and baby daughter live on the beach front in Mission Beach. They left town early in the day and drove south. They are OK, but just found this news article, which doesn't bode well for their house.
THE scene at Cyclone Yasi's ground zero is one of devastation, but even police who bunkered down at Mission Beach don't know just how bad it is.
"It was very quiet, eerie, we could see the stars, it was clear, just amazing," Ken Byce, hunkered down with his family in Mission Beach, waited for an hour while the eye of Cyclone Yasi passed over Mission Beach.
After experiencing hours of winds above 250km/h, the night suddenly turned quiet and serene at around midnight, Mr Byce said.
"Then it came back from the north. It had been blowing from the east and the south all through the first part, then she turned around and came from the north, that's what wiped out and flattened a few of the weaker houses."
Mr Byce was returning by foot to his own home at Mission Beach as he spoke to reporters.
"I'm picking my way along the main road, along Mission Beach, back to my place.
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"It's covered in litter and there'll be lots of cleaning up to do, chain-sawing, for several weeks, I'd say.
"It's wild and woolly here. It's still blowing a gale, it's raining."
A veteran of Cyclone Larry which ravaged the area in 2006, Mr Byce said Cyclone Yasi was a worse experience.
"It's a mess, mate," he said.
"I just walked past a banana farm, everything's flattened on that.
"All the trees around are stripped bare, what ones are still standing.
"There's heaps of houses gone. I just walked past a house - well, there's nothing left of it.
"Every house is damaged."
Police who endured Yasi's fury in the town that took a direct hit say trees had been reduced to sticks, streets were littered with debris, and some buildings had been damaged.
But conditions are still too dangerous in the wake of the category five monster to allow even a cursory assessment of the damage.
''Around 10pm (AEST) there was this massive roar and we could hear vegetation being shredded to pieces,'' officer in charge Sergeant Dan Gallagher told AAP about 6am (AEST).
But he said the police station had protected all the officers and a handful of locals who also sought refuge there, including a couple and their 18-month-old baby girl.
''We've been in lockdown since 7pm (on Wednesday). It's still roaring out there but nothing what it was like last night,'' he said.
''The station is pretty solid and its held up really well.
''I have never been through anything as severe as this but we were all positive and supportive and got each other through this.
''We're happy. We all have a smile on our faces and can say 'we got through this'.''
When the eye of the cyclone passed over Mission Beach, bringing almost an hour's reprieve from its winds, put at up to 290km/h, the officers did a quick scout of the station grounds.
''Vegetation has been reduced to sticks. A lot of trees are down and one police house was damaged,'' Sgt Gallagher said.
''But we haven't been able to go further. It's too dangerous.
''Powerlines are down but I'm expecting extensive damage.''
In total the station provided a safe haven for the seven officers, a paramedic, seven adults, 10 children, 10 dogs, a bird and two fish.
The children seemed to relish in what they saw as an unusual slumber party, playing games of cricket and eating loads of food.
''It's still very windy out there but as soon as it's safe to do so we will be on the streets assessing the damage,'' Sgt Gallagher, 39, said.
He said there'd been no reports of local fatalities or injuries.
A further 70 locals spent the night at Elandra Resort which has been built to withstand cyclones.
Resort general manager David Brook said the area now looked like ''Vietnam (in the war movie) Apocalypse Now''.
Trees are down, cars have been swept away, roofs have been torn away and the sand on the beach has disappeared, Mr Brook said.
''Nothing's been spared,'' he told ABC Radio.
''The devastation is phenomenal, like nothing I've ever experienced,'' he said, noting that he's seen at least five cyclones hit the area over the past 20 years.
It was two harrowing hours El-Arish resident Paul Osborne will never forget.
Debris thrown up by Cyclone Yasi hammered his north Queensland home overnight, sending vibrations through his brick walls as the storm unleashed its fury on the tiny town.
Mr Osborne lives just 15km from Yasi's ground zero at Mission Beach, which took a direct hit from the monster cyclone when it crossed land as a category five about midnight.
He says the winds are the most extreme he's ever experienced.
"It was just full on spray, you couldn't tell in what direction the wind was coming from," he said.
He said trees were going down everywhere and branches were cleanly ripped off by gusts the bureau has put as high as 290km/h.
"It was unbelievable, trees were coming down and hitting the roof, there was this incredible noise," he said.
"You could feel it vibrating through the block walk."
The full force of the wind is dying down and Mr Osborne said he'd poked his head out of the window to survey the damage.
He believes his home has structural damage, but the most obvious sign was the number of trees that had been flattened or broken.
"Debris is everywhere in the yard," he said.
- Just love it.. Human variety is truly amazing - kite went well.
