The first images out of the battered Queensland town of Yeppoon reveal the fierce impact of Cyclone Marcia.
Footage broadcast on the Nine Network shows large trees ripped out of the ground along the town's promenade, which is cluttered with debris.
Homes have also had roofs blown off, while sail boats are scattered about on their sides.
Snapped branches are strewn along wet streets and powerlines have also been downed toppled.
Whole walls of houses have been stripped off to reveal furniture intact inside, while the aluminium roof belonging to one lies in its front yard.
There's also some localised flooding along suburban streets.
Marcia crossed the Capricorn Coast as a category five storm on Friday morning but was downgraded to a category three as it headed inland towards Rockhampton.
Yeppoon resident Joyce Tinetti says the upstairs bedroom of her two-storey home is drenched despite all the windows being tightly shut and no roof leaks to speak off.
"The rain belted in from every angle. All the rugs in the bedrooms are soaked. It's amazing how there's water everywhere," she told AAP.
"It must have got in through the seals.
"The force of the wind was something I'd never seen before. The windows were shaking. It was so scary."
She said her two children, husband and two dogs all huddled in the basement bedroom to escape Marcia's wrath.
"We saw our neighbour's letterbox flying down the street. We saw another neighbour's boat canopy flying down the street and our metal letterbox, which has a steel post, was twisted 180 degrees somehow."
She said a pine tree had landed on the roof of a neighbour's house and most trees in the street had been flattened.
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