Assessors have found hundreds of homes and boats have structural damage in the hardest-hit area where Cyclone Yasi made landfall, Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts says.
Mr Roberts said the storm surge had kept authorities out of low-lying areas to assess the damage today, but aerial crews had flown over the areas to take a look.
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Trail of destruction ... a roof around a power pole in Cowley Beach, the debris in Mission Beach, a ruined banana plantation and a flattened caravan. Photo: Reuters
At Cardwell about 60 properties have major structural damage, 100 have "medium level damage" and 50 have minor damage, he said.
At Mission Beach about 22 properties have major structural damage.
At Tully Heads, 21 properties have major damage, 19 have medium damage and 12 have minor damage.
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Yasi hits north Queensland
A man works to repair damage to the roof of his house while his dogs inspect a fallen tree in Kamma on February 3. Photo: AP Photo/Rick Rycroft
And in the Hinchinbrook area, 70 boats in a harbour have major damage to them.
"I do want to stress, however, that this is aerial surveillance and until we get people on the ground making assessments property by property, they are preliminary assessments," Mr Roberts told reporters.
Cairns residents who fled their homes before Cyclone Yasi have been given the green light to return.
View Yasi strikes land in a larger map
The city avoided the worst of category five Cyclone Yasi but there were fears about the storm surge on today's 9.30am (AEST) high tide.
Yasi crossed at Mission Beach, south of Cairns, about midnight as a category five. Mission Beach, Tully and Cardwell bore the monster storm's full force.
A Cairns Council spokeswoman said people were asked to stay away from all esplanades, foreshores and beachfront areas until at least 1pm (AEST) today.
All clear
Because of the surge, the city's evacuation centres were kept in lockdown, but thousands of people have now been given the okay to leave.
Authorities are still surveying the damage around Cairns and residents are urged to stay off the roads over the coming days to keep them clear for emergency services, police say.
Mayor Val Schier earlier told Fairfax Radio that Cairns had been well prepared and had escaped major damage.
"There's debris down and branches and trees and the power is out but relative to our friends down south, we've been unscathed," she said.
"We're hoping that the airport will be open in a couple of hours. They'll do a clean-up of the runway and we'll be open for business very soon."
Premier Anna Bligh says the tourist city could be running close to normal within 24 hours, with its evacuated hospitals making plans to re-open.
Police advised Cairns residents not to go sightseeing, check on neighbours who stayed home and not to use electrical appliances that got wet until they have been checked for safety.
People should boil or purify drinking water until the supply is declared safe, stay away from fallen trees and powerlines and flood water and contact the council for assistance if their home has been damaged.
If their home appears to be structurally damaged they should not enter, police say.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged far north Queenslanders to not let their guard down, saying the storm is still dangerous.
Shoppers again may be forced to fork out up to $13 a kilo for bananas after early predictions more than 90 per cent of Australia's banana crop was wiped out by Yasi.
It will almost certainly impact on prices, National Farmers Federation president Jock Laurie said.
There had been no reports of any deaths or serious injuries as a result of Cyclone Yasi, she said, and Cairns had been spared the worst. But the smaller communities of Mission Beach, Tully, Tully Heads, and Cardwell were bearing Yasi's full force.
Power off
Ms Bligh said about 175,000 people were without power, after the cyclone hit major transmission lines and restoring supply would be a major priority.
"Potentially there's quite a lot of structural damage to essential services," she said.
She said six people, aged in their 60s, who were trapped in a unit at Port Hinchinbrook overnight were safe and well this morning.
The first assessment of the town of Tully had 90 per cent of the main street "extensively damaged". Support is expected to reach the town today.
Ms Bligh said news of a birth in a Cairns evacuation centre would bring a much needed lift to people's spirits.
"In the midst of all of this devastation, new life in some very touching circumstances," she said.
"I'm sure it will bring a lot of smiles to faces in that centre today after such a difficult and distressing night."
AAP
