UPDATED 9.00AM There are fears hundreds of homes and businesses have been damaged by ex- tropical cyclone Debbie after it hit north Queensland with ferocious winds and driving rain.
The storm is not done with Queensland yet. It continues to dump vast amounts of rain in coastal and inland river catchments that are now beginning to flood.
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From dawn, the Australian Defence Force will join emergency crews to begin accessing in the damage from Debbie's howling 260km/h catergory four winds in areas in that were eye of the storm.
They include Airlie Beach, Proserpine, and Bowen. The jewels in Queensland's tourism crown, Hamilton, Hayman and Daydream islands also copped a severe battering as Debbie swept through on Tuesday.
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Some farming crops have been wiped out with the Insurance Council of Australia declaring Debbie a "catastrophe". Thousands of claims are expected.
Debbie has also caused structural damage in the town of Collinsville, inland from Airlie Beach, when it swept past at about midnight as a category two cyclone.
The Bureau of Meteorology downgraded Debbie to a tropical low about 3am (AEST) on Wednesday.
But it's continuing to produce damaging wind gusts and heavy rain over inland central Queensland around Collinsville and Moranbah.
The bureau has warned of the potential for flash flooding in Mackay, Sarina, Carmila, Yeppoon, Moranbah, Clermont, Emerald, Springsure and Rolleston.
"Widespread daily rainfall totals of 150mm to 250mm are expected, with significantly higher totals possible locally," the bureau said.
Rivers swollen by Debbie's deluge are now beginning to flood, but it's not clear what threat this poses to adjacent communities.
There is a major flood warning in place for the Don River, which flows through Bowen.
A flood warning is also current for the Proserpine River.
The Pioneer River, which flows through Mackay, is also at risk of reaching major flood levels.
Moderate flood warnings are current for the Connors and Isaac rivers inland, and there's a flood warning for Theresa Creek. The Burdekin River is at risk of reaching moderate flood levels.
Coastal catchments between Ayr and the NSW border are on flood watch, and that alert extends inland to parts of the central highlands and coalfields, central west, Maranoa and Warrego, and the Darling Downs and granite belt districts.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk expects there will be a vast amount of damage and that advance inspection teams may find injured people.
"We do not know the impact this cyclone has had on those regional populations," she said on Tuesday night.
"We have a lot of old homes in these areas and we do not know if they've been able to sustain the huge battering."
A small number of rapid damage assessments carried out before sunset Tuesday in the hard hit communities of Airlie Beach and Proserpine offered some sense of the damage that will unfold as crews go from street to street inspecting homes and businesses on Wednesday morning.
Of the 19 assessments done in those two towns late on Tuesday, nine reported severe structural damage, six moderate and four minor.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Queensland would get the help it needs to recovery.
"We have put in place the biggest pre-deployment of the Australian Defence Force in advance of a natural disaster," he said.
Soldiers, vehicles, aircraft and other resources are among the defence resources sent in to help.
State Recovery Co-ordinator Brigadier Chris Field, who co-ordinated clean-up efforts following Cyclone Yasi in Queensland in 2011, will lead recovery efforts.
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