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Cyclone Marcia crashes birthday bash

Mick Burrows has had a 50th birthday bash he'll never forget.

And a clean-up even you wouldn't expect at even the wildest of parties.

Mr Burrows and 10 family and friends were celebrating the milestone in two adjoining waterfront properties at Lammermoor Beach, near Yeppoon, on Thursday night as category five Cyclone Marcia bore down on the area.

Several drinks later, with the party still in full swing, the revellers received texts from emergency crews recommending they urgently evacuate the low-lying area.

With most not capable of driving, they all piled in to whatever cars they could and hurried back to Rockhampton, where they still had to weather the storm, but in much safer circumstances.

They returned to their holiday home on Saturday morning to find the roofs on both units had blown off into the neighbour's yard, the walls were torn off and their belongings were covered in wood, glass and water.

"Luckily my wife said 'come on, we're going', because that's where my bed was up there," Mr Burrows' brother-in-law Ian Bock told AAP, pointing to a pile of rubble on the upper level.

"We didn't take anything. We were just out. Gone."

Mr Burrows, who was trying to salvage what he could, said it was a birthday he wouldn't forget.

"How many people can say they've celebrated like this?" he joked.

Mr Burrows said he was amazed the two vehicles the group had to leave at the property were untouched.

"Look at all this stuff around here and there's not even a scratch on these," he said.

Power remains out in up to 50,000 properties across the region and an army of volunteers and SES crews are out cleaning up debris.