At Batemans Bay there was a kilometre long queue to just to get petrol at the local Caltex. Thousands of people had just endured the hell of the New Year's Eve blaze, and were told to get out before another potential catastrophe this weekend.

There’s minimal power, so many ATMs weren’t working. The service station was only taking cash, which caused an even longer wait to fill up. Then when people finally got to the cashier with a credit card, they were told they couldn’t pay.

Some just drove off, which led to threats from the petrol station owner that he would shut the whole place down.

The local supermarkets were shopped out and some towns like Lake Conjola are cut off completely. Local Robin Coote lost her home and the first drink of water she had was when one of our crews handed her a bottle.