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Frightening Footage Of 263km/h Gusts On Hamilton Island As Tourist Playground Slammed

'I think it's getting worse.'

This is the scene on Hamilton Island on Tuesday morning, as Cyclone Debbie roars its away through the Whitsundays' largest resort with teeming rain and wind gusts as high as 263km/h, according to the latest real time Hamilton Island weather observations.

The Huffington Post Australia spoke to the woman who posted the first video above. She is holidaymaker Chrissie Yee of Sydney, who is on the island celebrating her 11th wedding anniversary. The video was posted at 9:56am (AEST) from the 13th floor of the Reef View Hotel.

"I think it's getting worse," Yee said. "There is almost zero visibility and all I can hear is the wind and some sort of banging."

Like all Hamilton Island guests, Yee is holed up in her room, unable to leave her hotel until the storm passes. You'll be pleased to know she and her husband and four-year-old son have supplies.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Cyclone Debbie's location at 1pm (AEST) was 55 kilometres southeast of Bowen and 20 kilometres northeast of Proserpine. It is moving quite slowly for a tropical cyclone at 11 km/h, and is tracking in a southwesterly direction.

Despite the severe conditions, Hamilton Island issued a statement saying power and telecommunications are still working.

It also issued a warning to people not to venture outside if the eye of the storm passes directly over the island.

The weather is deceptively calm in the eye of a cyclone, but the cyclonic winds resume as soon as the eye has passed. Typically, the eye of a cyclone is about 50km across.

Meanwhile the city of Mackay continues to brace for the impacts of the storm surge associated with Cyclone Debbie, as winds push seawater ashore. It is feared that the storm's arrival will coincide with high tide at 11am today, which will likely exacerbate any storm surge flooding.

Up to 25,000 people in the city of 85,000 live in areas which are expected to experience inundation which is predicted to be between 0.8 and 2.5m above the usual high tide mark.

Mackay Council has also released several maps of the areas that are expected to be most affected depending on varying storm surge levels, for residents who are yet to have evacuated.

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