More than 53,000 Ergon Energy energy customers do not have power in North Queensland, with the majority in Townsville.
Conditions must clear before crews can assess the full extent of the damage to the grid and the company says the priority is to reconnect emergency services, hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure.
Townsville Airport remained shut as of 8am on Friday.
The Bureau of Meteorology says the weather system could still bring strong winds and heavy rain as it moves inland.
"It will carry a lot of that moisture with it, gradually pushing it through central and then more western parts of Queensland," senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said.
Kirrily approached the coast on Thursday night as a severe category three system, producing gusts up to 170km/h.
Its intensity slipped to category two just before making landfall about 10pm and eased to a category one system after moving inland, with maximum gusts of 120km/h about midnight.
⚠️ A Severe Weather Warning has been re-issued for inland North Queensland. Ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is expected to produce heavy to locally intense rainfall and possible damaging winds over the warning area today. Details at — Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) https://t.co/m0qLcbkBhG pic.twitter.com/aZugRvQPDdJanuary 25, 2024
"It was more of a wind event than a rain event," Ms Bradbury told ABC News on Friday morning.
"The rainfall totals only reached 50 to 70mm but plenty of wind damage, with many trees down and debris on the roads and that sort of thing."
Offshore reefs registered peak gusts up to 140km/h with sustained winds above 116km/h. Closer to the coast the top gusts were 107km/h at Alva Beach and around the Townsville area, 91km/h.
Kirrily was about 170km west southwest of Townsville and 125km west northwest of Charters Towers and continuing southwest at 24km/h about 4am on Friday.
It is believed to be the strongest cyclone to hit Queensland's north since Cyclone Althea devastated the region in 1971.
The rapidly transforming system lingered in the Coral Sea for days, a tropical low finally developed into Cyclone Kirrily on Wednesday. It was then upgraded to category two on Thursday morning but took just five hours to reach category three status.
North Queensland had bunkered down by 2pm AEST on Thursday as winds intensified.
More than 120 schools were closed with hundreds of emergency services on standby.
Many Australia Day ceremonies planned for Friday were cancelled while Queensland Rail services north of Rockhampton were suspended.
A severe weather warning has been issued for communities in the system's path, forecasting intense rainfall which could lead to "life-threatening" flash flooding in some areas.
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