"I just wanted to say, 'Hey listen, you didn't win this one," Mr Wilson said.

After painting his fence with the message "Cyclone Debbie bring it on Bowen is not a pussy town do your best you got" at 2am on Monday, he said he went out at 6pm on Tuesday night to paint his new message: "cyclone Debbie 0, final score Bowen 1".

Originally painted to help break the ice with tense locals, Mr Wilson said the new message was to show that locals weren't scared.

"We didn't cop as much as we thought we were going to cop," he said.

"So yeah, it just means she didn't beat us."

Mr Wilson said he stood outside for most of the storm, "just watching the wind and the rain".

"We're just very lucky we didn't get the winds Hamilton Island had, I think there would have been a lot of damage if we had 260, 270 (kilometre an hour winds)."

With wind gusts reaching a top of 148 kilometres an hour before the Bureau of Meteorology station at Bowen went down, the town was spared the extensive damage that Hamilton Island, Daydream Island, Airlie Beach and Proserpine suffered.

Holiday-makers remained stranded on Daydream Island, while emergency services searched for the missing occupants of two vehicles that were submerged in floodwaters near Proserpine.

Despite Bowen's lucky escape from that level of destruction many homes were now unliveable, including the home of John Anderson, after rain tore at roofs, stressed foundation pillars and also caused extensive water damage, according to emergency services.

Bowen was battered for well over 12 hours by heavy rain and gusty winds, but for Mr Wilson the only damage was a bit of a water leak and a broken skylight.

"Realistically, I do think Bowen got away with it," he said.