Road access is emerging as a major concern for local councils bracing for the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Nathan in far north Queensland's tourism communities.
The system is expected to make landfall around 2am (AEST) on Friday somewhere between Cooktown and Cape Melville as a category four cyclone.
The Douglas Shire Council, which covers Port Douglas and many regional Daintree communities further north, is familiar with the access problems created by severe storms.
When the region was struck by Cyclone Ita last April, it was left with a damage bill of almost $20 million for major road repairs.
"We are very concerned about areas that have a lot of rainforest to the northern part of the shire like Cape Tribulation, we've got communities up there," mayor Julia Leu told AAP on Thursday.
"We do have to work very hard to clear those roads as soon as possible and we do sometimes have significant damage."
But authorities and residents are breathing somewhat of a sigh of relief after each new track map issued by the Bureau of Meteorology predicted the cyclone would move further north.
"We're lucky that at this stage, that the current tracking and the timing of the cyclone ... means it won't be coinciding with high tides," Ms Leu said.
"That would have resulted in a lot of storm surges for us in Port Douglas and many of our coastal villages further north."
The council is not expecting it will open a cyclone shelter but has placed extra staff in northern townships to help clear roads after the storm clears.
"We're well prepared and we've been preparing for really more than a week now," Ms Leu said.
But cyclones are notoriously unpredictable, she warned.
"All we are now doing in these last few hours is urging all of our residents to be as prepared as possible."
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