Also closed due to flooding is the Capricorn Highway from Duaringa to Emerald. It’s closed to all vehicles at Charlevue Creek approximately 10km west of Dingo.

Ului crossed the coastline near Proserpine at 1.30am on Sunday, March 21, as a category 3, nearly four years to the day when the more destructive category 5 Cyclone Larry crossed the coast further north near Innisfail on March 20, 2006.

Ului has caused power and telephone outages across the Mackay and Whitsunday region, while the region’s canegrowers are still counting the costs of damage to crops.

The full impact of crop damage will not become clear until growers have had the opportunity to venture back into devastated fields, and possibly until the commencement of harvesting in late June, when the impact of lower productivity resulting from broken, shredded and lodged cane can be accurately assessed says peak sugarcane body Canegrowers.

High winds flattened a large area of cane in the major cane growing area, with the potential damage from the cyclone threefold.

“High winds have caused some cane to snap but waters will need to subside considerably before growers can access their property to make those types of estimations,” Canegrowers chief executive Ian Ballantyne said.

“The unknown is the large areas of cane which were flattened and the extent of inundation to follow over the next few days.

“Badly flattened cane will grow sideways resulting in a loss in productivity, which will not be known until harvest which starts in July.

“The story is happier for less flattened cane which has the potential to stand back up if the sun comes out and helps dry out the crop quickly. But the rub is the rain which invariably follows a cyclone event.”

Rainfalls recorded in the past few days around CQ include Yaamba 219mm; Sarina 194mm; Proserpine 137mm; Mackay 168mm; and Collinsville 91mm.