Thousands without power in south-east Queensland after Cyclone Debbie – as it happened

• Destructive winds and torrential rain batter south-east Queensland and northern NSW
  
• 52,000 without power in south-east Queensland
  
• A wave of 8m recordedoff Mooloolaba on Sunshine Coast
  
• Over 400mm of rain was recorded in Tweed River valley in northern NSW
  
• Evacuations ordered in Lismore, Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads
  
• A bull shark washed up in the town of Ayr where Cyclone Debbie made landfall
  
• How Cyclone Debbie compares to other cyclones

30 Mar 201705.21 EDT

Alison Rourke

If the rain and flood damage isn’t bad enough for Queensland residents affected by the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie, the spiders that follow will be an unwelcome addition.

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I covered the Brisbane floods for the Guardian in January 2011, when torrential rain wreaked havoc across Queensland and an “inland tsunami” tragically claimed lives in the Lockyer Valley and Toowoomba.

In the Brisbane suburb of Rosalie, roads turned to rivers as house after house was cut off by rising flood waters. A local resident ferried neighbours back and forth to their homes on a fishing dinghy as the overflowing Brisbane River threatened havoc.

I travelled with resident Scott MacKenzie to his home on stilts, with water lapping at the front door. In the dinghy we carried sand bags, hastily filled at the local hardware store. Scott knew the kitchen and walls were likely to be destroyed, but he wanted to block up the toilets to prevent sewerage flowing into the house.

In the turgid, brown flood water, dozens and dozens of spiders floated beside us, washed up from flooded ground with nowhere to go. It was an arachnophobe’s nightmare. Furry, eight-legged creatures of all sizes floated on top of the water.

In flood-hit Tasmania in June 2016, trees were covered in webs as spiders sought refuge on higher ground. The Australian Museum’s collection manager in arachnology said the “mass ballooning event” was the result of tens of thousands of spiders converging on what little dry spots remained in the region. Their webs combined to form a thick netting.

Destructive winds are being recorded in Brisbane’s eastern suburbs with one gust recording 115km/h. Queensland Ambulance is warning people to stay out of stormwater and if you see anyone in it, tell them to get out!

Warnings of heavy rain have been issued for Dayboro, north-west of Brisbane. The Queensland BoM says 60-85mm of rain has fallen in the past hour.

Widespread flooding in Lismore led to a flood evacuation order for the CBD and north and south of the city.

It’s going to be a very long night for people in south-east Queensland and northern NSW with another three to six hours of heavy rainfall predicted.

The electricity company Energex says more 52, 731 customers are without power in south-east Queensland. Of that, 33,000 are on the Sunshine Coast and more than 1,100 in Brisbane.

The Queensland government’s wave monitoring unit has recorded a wave of over eight meters at Mooloolaba on the state’s Sunshine Coast. The unit uses buoys to measure the height of passing waves which are then transmitted to nearby receiver stations.

Up to 417mm of rain has fallen over the Tweed River valley in northern NSW in the past 24 hours, leading to significant rises in river levels in the area. The Bureau is forecasting further rainfall in the next 24 hours

Major flooding has happened at Murwillumbah and moderate flooding is predicted at Chinderah tonight with the high tide. Residents in the South Murwillumbah were ordered to evacuate the area earlier on Thursday.

Looks like someone forgot to give Channel 7’s Chris Reason the dress code for reporting.

The Bureau says that at 5pm ex-tropical cyclone Debbie was 100km west of Kingaroy, about two-and-a-half hours drive west of Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast.

The system is expected to continue moving southeastwards over southeast Queensland during Thursday afternoon and evening. Ex-tropical Cyclone Debbie is then expected to move off the far southeast coast overnight.

BoM says the storm is likely to develop off the southeast coast during Friday and slowly move eastwards away from the Queensland coast during the weekend.

One of the pictures of the day from Queensland was a bull shark washed up in Ayr, where Cylcone Debbie made landfall.

The river has risen substantially at Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane as this commuter found out on the journey home.

These broadcasters are keeping their sense of humour: “The weather radar looks like a Smurf in a blender”. I’m guess that’s lots of blue.

Can’t really argue with them.