MICHAEL Taffe was waiting yesterday to hear from his son Stewart Campbell-Taffe after his home miraculously survived Cyclone Larry in Queensland.
The former Ballarat High School student called home from Silkwood about 9am on Monday to say he, his partner and their three teenagers were "doing alright".
Silkwood is just 30km from Innisfail, where the full force of the cyclone was felt.
Mr Taffe said his son had told him all five, along with two dogs, six puppies and the family's cats had taken refuge in the bathroom.
"He rang back later, about 4pm, and said they must be the luckiest people in the street," Mr Taffe said.
"They were the only house with the roof still intact."
Mr Taffe said his son's main concern was water throughout the house which had entered through a casement window he couldn't close.
Mr Taffe said Stewart, 37, had planned to move from the rental property "closer to the beach" next week.
"And he had just finished work last week at a banana farm - there won't be any work there for awhile."
Further north, former Redan captain and St Thomas More teacher Mark Kennedy, now living in Cairns, said the cyclone hit his Redlynch home about 4am on Monday.
"It lasted until about 1pm. My girlfriend and I watched the windows shaking and answered a lot of calls from home," he said.
Mr Kennedy, who has been in far north Queensland for two years and coaches the Cairns Saints, said he had spent yesterday cleaning up the grounds of his new school, St Andrew's College.
The school had been closed Monday and yesterday because it had no power, the Year 8 co-ordinator said.
Mr Kennedy, 25, said his own home had also lost power and he was yet to see any footage of Cyclone Larry.
Also in Cairns, Alana Davison and her fiance Aaron Rushton watched the night before as the skies went black.
"The worst of it, the heaviest rain and howling winds, hit about 7am but we hadn't slept the whole night," Ms Davison said.
"For us, the build-up was the scary part. We were in a solid, brand new house so we didn't feel any danger."
Ms Davison, who moved with Mr Rushton to Cairns two years ago, said the phone calls from Ballarat ran hot.