One year ago Cyclone Yasi roared ashore in north Queensland, unleashing havoc on the communities in its path.

The wild storm brought wind gusts of 285 kilometres per hour, shredded trees, destroyed buildings and left lives in tatters.

The towns of Tully, Mission Beach, Cardwell, Silkwood and Innisfail bore the brunt of the category five storm.

Here, residents of cyclone-ravaged towns reflect on the disaster in their own words.

"I think people were prepared but I don't think we really understood the magnitude of what was about to happen"

Feluga resident June Perkins

"I was in the house when a fairly large tree came down and sort of squashed it in the middle. The tree was the only big tree left after Cyclone Larry [which] we also lived through.

As a physical experience there was no comparison - Yasi was much bigger. It was much more frightening. Yasi was like having a jet engine from a plane on your roof, and it would build up - this increasing noise - and then drop."

Mission Beach resident Dominic Mobbs

"Some people have really progressed - they have settled, their houses are fixed, they have been able to get on with things.

It's really good when you hear that someone's gone back to their house, or another business has re-opened, or that scaffolds have gone up - it is very uplifting."

June Perkins

"But other people are still in a situation where if it rains, they're under tarps or their roof is leaking. So it's hard for them to feel like they are back on track.

But they keep so optimistic ... they are still amazingly resilient, very positive and they don't really want to dwell on it too much."

June Perkins

"We are now 12 months on and we are still not back in the house. The wheels are turning extremely slowly.

It took six months of negotiating with the insurance company for a payout and we are having a completely frustrating time attempting to find builders to build us a new house.

We're renting in Mission Beach ... but sadly the rent from the insurance company only runs for a year after the event."

Dominic Mobbs

"I cut half of my cane from last year - that's a 50 per cent loss. In bananas I really haven't kept looking at those figures, it's just too dismal. We're having enough bad times without seeing that every day."

Cameron Flegler, who owns a farm near Tully

"The impact on the economy here has been devastating. Mission Beach is opposite Dunk Island - that got smashed up, the resort there closed."

Dominic Mobbs

"If you ask anyone up here what they went through they will always put at the end of it 'but I know there are people who have had it worse than me, don't make me sound like a whinger'.

I've got a friend who's moved six addresses, and their house ... is still a vacant block and they don't have a start date for rebuilding.

I may have had to move two times but we didn't have to live under a tarped roof with everything stored in the shed. So I look at my situation and it's not a worry."

June Perkins

"2011 has just disappeared at a rate of knots. The anniversary's just come around so quickly that the concept of celebrating or commiserating hasn't really crossed our mind.

People in other places have it a hell of a lot worse than we do - look at the floods in the Philippines, the disaster in New Zealand, the situation with our friends in Japan."

Dominic Mobbs

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