Kiwis awakening to the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi say they feel like they've "dodged a bullet", with reports of damage less than first expected.
Wellington ex-pat Loulou Lawley, who camped out in the bathroom of her Townsville apartment with a supply of Valium last night, said the sun rose to show streets covered in debris and the wind still raging.
"There's just stuff everywhere. Street signs, roofing iron. I have no idea what it will be like at the beach - usually the water is flat but last night there was nine metre waves."
Lawley said the power in her apartment went off at 9pm last night and had yet to come back on, meaning she couldn't go outside.
"I just holed up in my bathroom with some Valium. Being from Wellington I was only scared for about two hours. The average person was petrified for about 10 and possibly still is."
She said although people were not supposed to be on the roads yet, from her 6th-floor apartment she could already see cars driving around.
"Typical bloody Queenslanders."
Further south, in the township of Mackay, former Te Puke resident Mark Barraclough said the cyclone seemed to have missed them.
"We are further south but we were still fairly nervous. You never know with things of this size if they're going to stay on route or divert," Barraclough said.
"Our power is still off but other than that we're ok.
"I feel like we've dodged a bullet."
Former Hamilton man and TVNZ Australian correspondent Steve Marshall spent more than two hours in the basement of an international hotel in Cairns with more than 100 other guests and many family pets.
He described the storm as "very frightening indeed".
"It was like a freight train or jumbo jet bearing down on the hotel," he said.
As daylight began to break Mr Marshall ventured outside to gauge how destructive Cyclone Yasi had been and was amazed at what he saw.
"We won't know how bad things really are until we are able to get out and about but there is debris everywhere," he said.
Mr Marshall said though Cairns had "dodged a bullet" , many people were concerned about smaller towns and communities south of the city along the coast towards Townsville.
"We heard one story of a man in Tully who was left cowering in his car with his wife and mother with sheets of metal flying through the air there was no where for them to go they just had to ride it out."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade estimated there were 150,000 Kiwis in Queensland, but it was not known how many lived in the storm zone.
- Stuff
