Being well prepared helps protect family

Ryan and Stephanie Hoult check out the lawn after Cyclone Marcia's visit. Photo / Supplied

When former Northland man Peter Hoult took his two kids on an "adventure with dad" he had no idea Cyclone Marcia would turn up at their holiday spot.

Mr Hoult, Stephanie, 3, and Ryan, 2, ended up crouching in a tiny cabin in a campground while the highest category cyclone wreaked havoc outside.

Mr Hoult, who works in inland Queensland as a surveyor in the mining industry, always take his kids on "adventures with dad" during days off on his 9-day on, 5-day off work roster. This time they headed to a campground 10km south of a town many have now heard of after the grade-5 cyclone smashed the area - Yeppoon, 25km from Rockhampton, and the biggest of a string of seaside towns on the Capricorn Coast.

"When we came down on Wednesday afternoon, it was a category two, just a bit of a storm. Then it turned to s..t," Mr Hoult said.

Once at the campground, with the cyclone growing in intensity, there was nothing to do but stay put. A friend had earlier phoned to warn Mr Hoult to get cash out, fill up with gas, buy water, batteries, juice, food and even extra nappies. By Thursday, it was pandemonium. "It took me hours to get through the supermarket just to get a few things," Mr Hoult said.

When the power went off on Friday, he felt prepared with a small gas cooker, torch, handsaw and other useful gear he keeps in his four-wheel drive work vehicle.

On Thursday night, the children slept through the worsening storm but, at 3am on Friday, the State Emergency Services (SES) ordered an evacuation.

"The evacuation was pretty exciting. They wanted us to go to the local high school hall, but I thought with 400 people squashed in there it would be too stressful for the kids. They let us stay in another cabin which was more sheltered, and it withstood up to 270km/h winds."

During the morning, there was a lull. "That was the eye, which was 10km away. We were sitting in a tiny cabin in the eye of a grade-5 cyclone."

The bangs and crashes, flexing of windows, bending of walls, the shaking of the cabin began again with more terrible force. Mr Hoult drilled into his children that should there be a bigger bang or crash they must run into the bathroom, shut the door and huddle into a ball.

"Thankfully, it never came to that. At no stage was I really concerned about our safety. At worst, we would have got wet."

But Mr Hoult said it was shocking to emerge after the cyclone and see the damage.

"I'm a true blue Northland boy, I'm an organised father. I can take a bit of a storm, and I spent six years working in Borneo where I had everything possible thrown at me weather wise. But this ... wow. Thank goodness it came during the day. It would have been terrifying at night."