The head of Queensland's leading cyclone research centre has raised concerns over the amount of new buildings damaged when Cyclone Marcia battered central Queensland.
As of Sunday afternoon, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had declared 475 Queensland homes unlivable with many more suffering serious damage.
The most severe damage was reserved for older homes built before a major building code change in the mid-1980s.
But Cyclone Testing Station director David Henderson said the amount of damage to newer homes was worrying.
"That was a bit surprising to us actually, for the level of wind that was recorded, we weren't expecting to see (damage to newer homes)," he said.
"There wasn't a great deal but the fact that we saw some means there's issues that we need to investigate to try to see where these possible failings are coming from.
"The fact that it was on modern construction, some recently built, definitely needs to be investigated."
As Cyclone Marcia passed, wind gusts hit Yeppoon at up to 156km/h and Rockhampton further inland at as much as 113km/h, both well below the 250km/h winds buildings in the region were built to withstand.
Wind speeds in higher and more exposed areas would have been greater but Dr Henderson said building codes took that into account.
He said the impact on newer homes was minor compared to the destruction some faced but included damage to facades, roof flashing designed to keep water out and water leaking in around closed sliding doors and windows.
"Again the main structural systems are good but just parts of it can open up and it can exacerbate the damage and obviously exacerbate the stress of the people already in there," he said.
"We've got to look at whether we need to work better with the builders, with the designers, engineers, improve our understanding of these types of building systems to see what we can do to improve it," he said.
"In some places we were seeing new roofing in the order of five to 10 years old that had just been replaced and screwed into the old baton (instead of being fixed on more securely)."
The CTS investigation into Cyclone Marcia is still in its early days.
The centre released an update to its preliminary damage assessment report at the weekend, highlighting the difference between wind speeds at the cyclone's centre and those felt in affected towns further away from the eye.
"We can't have the building industry be maybe on the complacent side thinking that the winds that went through there were twice as strong as they actually were," Dr Henderson said.
"Just because it might have had some number a hundred-odd kilometres away, it doesn't mean that was the number on the outer band that went through a community."
A final CTS report, which Dr Henderson says could be as many as six weeks away, will be given to construction authorities and councils to inform any potential changes to building codes and help prevent future damage.
On Sunday, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said the damage bill for government infrastructure alone would likely run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, while announcing further flood relief for the more than 5000 residents still without power after the cyclone.
