Debbie is currently a category three cyclone, but is expected to build to a four by the time it crosses land somewhere between Townsville and Proserpine, with wind gusts of up 280 kmh near the centre, the meteorology bureau said. "It is going to take a long time, well into this afternoon and to the evening before these winds even start to die down," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television. The day before, Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had called in the country's defense force to assist in emergency response and 25,000 people living in north Queensland had been told to evacuate in preparation for what could be the worst storm to hit the coast since Cyclone Yasi in 2011, the Guardian reports .
More than 25,000 people are evacuated from the city of Mackay, Queensland, ahead of Cyclone Debbie which is expected to make landfall in northern Queensland tomorrow. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology warns that Cyclone Debbie will be the worst storm to hit Queensland since Cyclone Yasi in 2011.