DHAKA: A powerful cyclone roared ashore in a heavily-populated area of Australia on Friday with authorities warning of a ‘calamity’ and residents told to expect ‘a harrowing and terrifying experience’.

Tropical Cyclone Marcia slammed into the Queensland coast just after 2200 GMT on Thursday (4:00am Bangladesh time on Friday) and is expected to cause significant damage after being upgraded to a category five, the most severe.

‘Severe Tropical Cyclone Marcia, category 5, is currently moving onto the Capricorn coast near Shoalwater Bay, north of Yeppoon,’ the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said, reports The Straits Times.

Yeppoon, home to around 16,000 people, is some 670km north of Brisbane.

‘It is expected to continue moving in a southerly direction over land close to the coast during today,’ the bureau added.

Massive seas, a deluge of rain, flash flooding and wind gusts of up to 295kmh were expected along with abnormally high tides.

‘The wind is starting to really pick up,’ Katrina McDonald, who lives just outside Yeppoon, told the Brisbane Courier Mail newspaper as the storm hit.

‘The creek that runs through our property is roaring.’ Resort operator Sian Appleton said Great Keppel Island off Yeppoon was preparing for serious damage.

‘We’ve lost a lot of sand, erosion has been fairly heavy,’ she told national broadcaster ABC.

‘I think we'll probably lose three cabins and maybe even some of the bistro area.’ Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said it was a ‘desperate situation’.

‘This is going to be a calamity, no doubt about that,’ he said ahead of the tempest making landfall.

‘Our primary focus from this point on is the safety of all human life in that area.’

BDST: 0650 HRS, FEB 20, 2015