Major dam­age has been caused by Trop­i­cal Cyclone Mar­cia that came ashore rip­ping roofs off, down­ing trees, dam­ag­ing pow­er­lines and oth­er infra­struc­ture.  No lives were lost. 

The Bureau of Mete­o­rol­o­gy reports that the weath­er sys­tem quick­ly devel­oped into a Cat­e­go­ry 5 cyclone with 250 km/h winds that hit Yep­poon, and lost then inten­si­ty as it slow­ly moved south. 

Ear­ly prepa­ra­tions includ­ing evac­u­a­tions worked well. Many struc­tures gen­er­al­ly coped due to a rigid build­ing code, but there was wide­spread dam­age. Insur­ance asses­sors are work­ing through many busi­ness and pri­vate loss claims. Dur­ing pre­vi­ous major Queens­land cyclones exten­sive agri­cul­tur­al crops were lost. 

The Cen­tral Queens­land Ama­teur Radio Asso­ci­a­tion was on 7098 KHz and the 2m repeater. Oth­er WICEN groups helped the State Emer­gency Ser­vices and the respond­ing agencies. 

The storm caused the loss of pow­er to about 70% of the area, with 800 elec­tric­i­ty work­ers and the army were busy restor­ing pow­er, and remov­ing fall­en trees. 

A sep­a­rate weath­er sys­tem had dumped rain over south-east Queens­land includ­ing the cap­i­tal of Bris­bane, caus­ing some localised flooding. 

Mean­time Cyclone Lam engulfed the north-east of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry. Ear­ly evac­u­a­tion of light­ly pop­u­lat­ed islands and shel­ter­ing from that storm had been effective. 

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.