Cyclone devastated north Queensland towns can expect to be without power for weeks, Ergon Energy says.
On Friday, 150,000 customers remained without power from Cairns south to the Whitsundays in the wake of monster Cyclone Yasi.
Ergon spokesman John Fowler said repair crews were facing very difficult challenges around the devastated communities of Tully and Cardwell.
"There is a transmission tower knocked down near Cardwell and the damage to our network extending from Cardwell all the way through to Tully is quite extensive," he told AAP.
"Our issue at the moment is actually getting access to these areas because of the wet and boggy conditions.
"And once we get in, then we face the issue of the sheer number of trees on the roads."
Hardest hit communities would have to wait a couple of weeks for power to be restored, based on the experience after Cyclone Larry in 2006, Mr Fowler said.
He said anyone living in the cyclone zone, not close to a major population centre, could face an even longer wait, due to the physical challenges of getting repair crews in.
Mr Fowler said that despite big winds on Thursday, crews were able to reconnect about 30,000 customers, mostly in the Cairns area.
He said Ergon was confident of getting a substantial number of other customers reconnected on Friday, but could not say how many.
There should no longer be an issue with downed powerlines being live, but residents were still advised to treat them as live and stay away, Fowler said.
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