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TENS of thousands of people will relocate as Cyclone Yasi moves closer to the far north Queensland coast.
The cyclone described as a "monster, killer storm" is bearing down on Cairns, with communities far to the north, south and west of the northern Queensland tourist centre also braced for its fury.

At 10pm (AEST) last night the cyclone was 810km north east of Cairns.

The latest modelling suggests Cyclone Yasi is on track to hit Cairns between 10pm on Wednesday and 1am on Thursday as a highly destructive category four storm with wind gust above 260km/h.

Premier Anna Bligh said by 5pm (AEST) on Wednesday the breadth and the strength of Yasi will be more accurately known.

"So tomorrow (Wednesday) morning’s cyclone modelling will give a level of precision around a 50km either way mark," Ms Bligh told reporters.

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"At 5pm tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon that will be revised further and we would hope, again, to be in a narrower band."

The Australian Defence Force has been called in to evacuate hundreds of patients from two Cairns hospitals who started arriving in Brisbane on Tuesday evening.

Ms Bligh says Yasi is so powerful that communities hundreds of kilometres away from where it crosses the coast will experience category one and two-type conditions.

Residents as far away as Townsville, Ingham, Cooktown and the Whitsunday resort islands are evacuating properties on the back of warnings from authorities.

Police say they will commence door knocks of homes in certain low lying areas in Townsville from 5am on Wednesday to ensure evacuations occur ahead of Yasi.

Ms Bligh said mandatory evacuation orders were being given in council areas from Cook to Hinchinbrook for people in flood-risk areas.

Cairns Airport will close at 10am on Wednesday.

BOM senior forecaster Ann Farrell told AAP Yasi was continuing to intensify and she could not rule out the chance of it reaching category five.

"It is possible it could reach category five intensity, and that would push winds up to around the 300km/h mark," Ms Farrell said.

Yasi is expected to be Queensland’s worst cyclone, covering something approaching twice the physical size of Cyclone Larry, which devastated Innisfail in 2006 and left a $1.5 billion damage bill