Power was cut to the Earlville shopping centre around midnight, as Yasi crossed the coast at Mission Beach south of Cairns, leaving evacuees to wait out the storm in the dark.
"It's getting a bit stifling inside because the air conditioning's stopped," an ABC reporter said.
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The latest forecast track map from BOM, issued at 3:55 am EST this morning, shows Yasi tracking west and weakening slightly.
"You can image that with 2500 people crammed into an area that it's just getting a bit hot and sticky. They've opened some of the doors to ventilate the area.
"There are a lot of people asleep, there are a lot of people awake as well kind of fanning babies.
"As you walk through the crowds here there's heaps of people with pieces of paper trying to keep their children cool."
