The cleanup from ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily has begun in north Queensland after the weather system was downgraded to a tropical low.
Damaging winds and rainfall totals from 100-150mm hit the region on Thursday evening but minimal property damage was recorded and no lives were lost.
Authorities have now begun the process of restoring power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.
About 100 Ergon Energy workers were on the ground conducting damage assessments, with a further 600 headed to Townsville over the weekend.
“They’re mobilising from across the state,” Ergon’s cyclone response leader, Chris Hooper, said.
Vegetation and trees on power lines must be cleared before crews can assess the full extent of the damage to the grid.
Their priority was to reconnect emergency services, hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the cyclone “decayed rapidly” on Thursday night from a category three storm to a category two and then category one system.
The system was downgraded to a tropical low on Friday morning.
The cyclone brought wind gusts of up to 143km/h offshore but slowed as it hit landfall, with gusts reaching 90km/h in Townsville on Thursday night.
“Despite a tense night, no lives were lost. The threat is not over though,” the Queensland premier, Steven Miles, said. “We’re not out of the woods but we will continue to work to be prepared to support Queensland communities.”
About 65,000 homes and businesses across the region remained without power, the majority of which were in Townsville.
Authorities said 215 calls for service were made to the SES in the last 24 hours but no swift water rescues were needed.
More calls for service were expected as the cleanup from Cyclone Kirrily continued.
The federal emergency management minister, Murray Watt, said the Australian defence force remained on standby to assist but initial reports indicated it would be within the state government’s capacity to manage.
Townsville airport reopened by 3pm Friday.
The BoM said on Friday the system had “an extreme amount of moisture” which would produce heavy rainfall and could lead to life-threatening flash flooding and damaging winds.
Flood watch warnings remained in place for coastal and inland catchments between Tully and Airlie Beach, as well as parts of the central west and Gulf catchments.
The BoM advised minor to major riverine flooding was possible across those areas as the system moved west towards the border over the weekend and into next week.
A “continued monsoon” would remain in far north Queensland for the latter part of next week.
The state disaster coordinator, deputy commissioner Shane Chelepy, said 15 residents of Georgetown on the Etheridge River would be doorknocked and warned about the risks of the rising river.
“We have sufficient aviation fuel, food and water for those communities. And we also have some appropriate plans in place to continue that resupply over the next coming weeks,” he said.
Robyn Johnstone was one of the tens of thousands of Townsville residents who woke up without power this morning.
Johnstone lives in the suburb of Hermit Park and said she was thankful she only lost a small tree to Kirrily.
On a drive through her neighbourhood on Friday morning, Johnstone surveyed the damage, observing fallen branches and debris littering the roads.
“The cyclone sounded like a ghost howling. It was pretty windy. There was lots of rain,” she told Guardian Australia.
At 28, Johnstone has lived through Cyclone Yasi in 2011 and the 2019 floods. She said her community was feeling optimistic – even with heavy rainfall and strong winds still forecast.
“People [up here] are pretty resilient. A lot of people just think the worst of it is gone.”
Maria – who requested her surname not be used due to her job – spent the days before Cyclone Kirrily frantically removing bamboo and trees from her home in Kirwan in the western suburbs of Townsville.
She moved to the property from Melbourne in 2014 and wanted to ensure she was prepared for her first cyclone.
“We hired a large trailer to remove 13 metres of dwarf bamboo and eight metres of heliconias … If we didn’t cut them down, I reckon we would now be picking it all up,” she told Guardian Australia.
Maria said she felt lucky she had not lost power and had no damage to her home.
“I now understand how scary Cyclone Yasi was back in 2011. It does worry me what the actual category three would feel like.”
With reporting by Australian Associated Press
