Police said the boys had smashed through the window of the Herbert Street business and stole property, including cash and stationery, sometime between midnight Sunday and 7am on Monday.

The business was closed due to flooding associated with ex-tropical cyclone Ita.

The boys, two 16-year-olds from Ingham and a 13-year-old from Forrest Beach, were charged with looting offences.

The state disaster coordinator, deputy police commissioner Steve Gollschewski, said the Queensland Police Service had zero tolerance to looting in a disaster zone.

“It is very disappointing that in times of disaster some people attempt to take advantage of another person’s misfortune,” he said.

“The QPS will not tolerate looters and are constantly vigilant in order to prevent and, where necessary, capture these opportunists.”

The three boys will appear in the Ingham Children’s Court “at a later date”.

The arrests came as the clean-up of flooded Ingham was almost complete, with the town’s mayor acknowledging the north Queensland community dodged a bullet when Ita passed through.

Hinchinbrook Mayor Rodger Bow said the community was well versed in dealing with the aftermath of cyclones.

“If the people who had the dirty water didn’t start cleaning up as soon as the water receded, the mud would have dried and it would have been a difficult job,” he said.

“So the idea was to hose out as soon as possible. We had the fire service out there with high-pressure hoses hosing the place out.

“If you get the mud when it’s still wet, it’s very easy to push it out into the gutter.”

Cr Bow said the final cost to the council would not be known for some time.

“As the water recedes, we’ve got people out there assessing the damage,” he said.

“We haven’t got a damage bill yet and we probably won’t have one for another couple of days, or early next week after Easter, but it’s going to run into the tens of millions of dollars.”

The main concern was the town of Halifax, which had its main road cut off.

But Cr Bow said the town was still accessible through side roads.

“We’ve fared pretty well considering we had a very major flood – 12.6 metres, which is up there with the highest floods ever – and with the inundation there was no evacuations, no deaths, it’s been really good,” he said.

“It’s been a very dirty flood with the silt and mud under the houses and on the roads.

“But it was good, if you can say a flood’s good, because with the height of the river there should have been evacuations and more water in homes than there was.”

A State Emergency Service spokeswoman said there had been 49 calls in the 24 hours leading up to 2pm on Tuesday and they were mostly unrelated to Ita.

Since Friday, there had been 563 calls across north Queensland.