Already waterlogged parts of central and northern Queensland could face more flooding from severe Tropical Cyclone Ului as it moves closer to the coast.

The weather bureau says while the cyclone was downgraded to a category three system overnight, it is likely to reintensify before it crosses the central Queensland coast at the weekend.

The cyclone is about 1,100 kilometres north-east of Mackay in north Queensland, moving slowly southwards at six-kilometres-an-hour.

Senior forecaster Geoff Doueal says it expects the cyclone to reintensify tonight before crossing the Queensland coast over the weekend, bringing bring extensive rain.

“Certainly in that Central Highlands area where the Fairburn Dam around emerald is quite full at the moment – that could be a bit of a problem,” he said.

“The remnant s of the rain extends into the central-west, around Longreach again.

“I think the most concern would be around the Pioneer [River which runs through Mackay] and … if it crosses the coast.”

Mr Doueal says people living in central Queensland should be prepared.

“It is very likely the cyclone will cross the coast either on the weekend or early next week,” he said.

“People in the affected areas will have started getting their cyclone kits together and started making preparations.

“The favourite scenario is currently the central coast of Queensland most likely Saturday night or early Sunday – it should cross the coast as a severe tropical cyclone most likely as a category three or four system.

“Certainly we will be starting to issue watches during today and also there will be warnings commencing on Friday.

“A couple of the models that we’ve been mostly following have still got it coming.

“One of [the models] has it crossing the coast on Saturday night around Bowen.

“Another [model] is a little further southwards – there’s been ever-so-slight a trend in the modelling of having the cyclone crossing the coast a little bit further north than earlier in the week.”

Mr Doueal says south-east Queensland is not likely to get a lot of rain today.

Island evacuations

Meanwhile, authorities at two central Queensland islands will ensure the last of their staff return to the mainland today.

Staff from the University of Queensland’s (UQ) research station on Heron Island, as well as staff from the island’s resort are expecting to arrive back in Gladstone today.

UQ spokesman Peter Harris says research centre staff have tied down loose items and taped up windows.

He says after today there will be no staff at the centre.

“It’s infrequent that we have a full evacuation,” he said.

“Our staff are preparing the station for bad weather that’s associated with the cyclone and basically tying everything down and taping windows.”

Mr Harris says staff will not return until it is safe to do so.

Delaware North, which owns resorts on Heron and Wilson Islands, says about 100 resort staff will also leave today.

Company spokeswoman Louise Longman says a complete evacuation has not occurred for many years.

Ms Longman says about 150 resort guests were evacuated yesterday.

North Queensland

The executive officer of the Whitsunday Disaster Management Group, Glen Gatton, says there is no need for residents to be concerned at this stage.

Mr Gatton says it is a big system and that they have been preparing for the cyclone since late last week.

He says residents should continue to prepare, but at this stage there is no reason to be concerned.

“Friday we’ll make a call on whether we ramp up a bit more, but it is a big system at this point in time,” he said.

“Predictions are that it will decrease, but we can’t go by that.

“On Friday we’ll make a call on what we’re going to do and whether we ramp up our activities in preparations for it.

“All indications are it will slide below us and that’s where we’re banking a little bit on that, but we won’t go to sleep on that.

“Keep aware, don’t be complacent put your preparation plans in place.”

The Mackay Regional Council says it is monitoring the cyclone and will put resources on standby for the weekend if it intensifies.

Council spokesman says council is prepared if the cyclone crosses the coast.

“What we’re doing is we’re monitoring the track of the cyclone, to see whether there’s going to be an impact on Mackay or certainly the coastline of Mackay,” he said.

Mr Holley says residents should prepare emergency kits.

“We’ve got a brochure to all residents in terms of how they should prepare for impending cyclones and we would hope that they have that on hand and all of the emergency kits associated with being prepared for a cyclone,” he said.

“I think we should be mindful that again we’re just being prepared – we’re not panicking about the situation at the moment.”

Ports closed

Two major coal ports in the Mackay region will remain closed today due to the rough conditions being created by the cyclone.

All loading operations at the Dalrymple Bay Terminal were suspended just after 10:30pm AEST.

Loading at the neighbouring Hay Point terminal was also stopped last Thursday.

- Reporting by Andree Withey, Kylie Bartholomew, Melissa Maddison, Sigrid Brown and Franics Tapim