Surfers make the most out of powerful Cyclone Marcia by riding the high tides in Australia

Surfers braved heavy rain and strong winds in Australia by taking to the waves during a tropical cyclone that battered the country, damaged homes and severed power links.

Cyclone Marcia brought gusts of wind of up to 183 mph (295 kph) yesterday with the Bureau of Meteorology warning residents of “abnormally high tides” on the coast of the city of Rockhampton, Queensland.

But that did not deter the die-hard surfers who thought the conditions were just perfect and hauled out their wetsuits and boards to ride the waves.

Across the state, 134 schools and 43 childcare centres closed – according to national broadcasters – however no fatalities have been recorded.

“At this stage, everyone is breathing a deep sigh of relief that there has been no loss of life,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters in state capital Brisbane.

In Rockhampton, homes were left without electricity and long queues snaked out of the only fuel station left with power to run its petrol pumps.

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The fury of the cyclone drove Demelza and Shaun Bischoff out of their home, along with their three children.

“It felt like the whole house was going to crumble,” Demelza Bischoff told Reuters, describing how storm damage had forced the family to move from room to room of their home.

“It started getting really bad, the tin roof started lifting and the ceiling blew out,” she said. “Then we took shelter under the kitchen table with mattresses all around us.”

Now back home, they put furniture and clothing in their garden to dry out in the hot sun.

Marcia was preceded by Cyclone Lam, which hit a sparsely-populated area of the Northern Territory just hours before.

The storm has today been downgraded from a category five cyclone to a category four, however the south-east of Queensland is braced for further destruction as it moves away from the mainland to over the ocean.