Residents have been allowed to return to the New South Wales south coast town hit by a ferocious firestorm last weekend, as questions continue to be asked about the adequacy of the warnings system used to alert them to the impending disaster.
Tathra locals were notified by Rural Fire Service crews if their home was damaged, destroyed or unaffected, and those who lost property were given priority to board "site inspection" buses taking them into town on Tuesday morning.
The streets weren't yet safe enough to allow people to get off the buses amid fears of asbestos contamination, fallen power lines, unstable structures and other hazards. But residents were at least be able to see what's left of their homes after days of uncertainty.
Tathra residents were allowed back into town to inspect the damage on Tuesday. Source: Marija Zivic/SBS News
Resident Judith Reid said the local firefighters who put their lives at risk to fight the fire were heroes.
"Most of them are locals whose own houses were in jeopardy. People forget that. I will be forever grateful for what they have done."
Many residents cried and embraced as they returned to the evacuation centre in Bega on Tuesday afternoon.
Ray Coates, who lives in a retirement village, considers himself lucky after finding his unit still standing.
"It's heart-wrenching," Mr Coates told reporters at the evacuation centre.
"With floods, you've still got a house, but with fires you've got nothing."
The retiree said people broke down as they passed their burned-out homes.
Scores of homes in Tathra were incinerated in Sunday's bushfire. Source: Marija Zivic/SBS News
The hardest part was seeing one side of the street unaffected while the other was destroyed.
"One (woman) saw her house and she just yelled out to people 'Can you see my cat?'" he said.
Dom Tetley, whose unit was destroyed by fire, initially didn't want to see the destruction but his wife convinced him to board the bus to Tathra.
"I'm glad I went," he told AAP.
"It made me realise how lucky anyone in Tathra is if their house is still standing."
Poor phone reception cited in the aftermath
Tathra residents Ingrid Mitchell and Deb Nave sold their house last Wednesday but it was completely destroyed by the Tathra fire.
Ms Mitchell said because of poor mobile phone reception, they got no evacuation messages until they got to Mogareeka, which is half an hour away.
“Tathra is just so poor for reception, we don’t get reception in the house when we had it,” Ms Mitchell said.
“We've been asking for reception to be improved ever since we moved here which was 2010, it's appalling. It was a real safety situation the other day.”
Tathra residents Ingrid Mitchell and Deb Nave wonder through the burnt out remains of their Wildlife Drive home in Tathra. Source: AAP
Authorities have backed the manner in which emergency warnings were delivered to Tathra residents in the moments before their NSW south coast town was hit by a raging bushfire on the weekend.
Fire crews on Monday afternoon confirmed 69 houses and 30 caravans or cabins were destroyed in the bushfires. A further 39 houses were damaged with nearly 400 saved.
It's not yet known how many residents didn't receive an SMS warning.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian insists authorities did all they could to alert residents. Messages were delivered via mobiles and also landline phone calls.
By the time the emergency evacuation text message was sent on Sunday afternoon, the flames were already visible, said Bega deputy mayor Liz Seckold, who lives in Tathra.
Shorten heads to devastation site
Opposition leader Bill Shorten visited an evacuation centre in Bega about 16 kilometres east of Tathra on Tuesday morning and has expressed his sympathies for those affected by the devastating blaze.
He spoke to reporters outside the remains of one of the houses burned to the ground in the fire.
"You can see the images on television but when you see it live you realise this was quite a horrific blaze," Mr Shorten said.
"When you lose a house to a fire. It is not just physical bricks. It is the memories."
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Resident banding together
Hundreds who evacuated remained at a pop-up recovery centre in nearby Bega, under the care of charities and volunteers.
Hamish Payne and Elissa Payne were both evacuated out on Sunday afternoon. The pair, who both work for the local supermarket, organised emergency supplies to come to the shelter where residents have come for refuge.
"I grabbed the wife, I grabbed the dog, I grabbed the wedding photos, and I got out with a couple minutes to spare," Mr Payne said.
"The important thing is we've lost houses, but we haven't lost neighbours."
Ms Payne said residents hoped to get a closer look at the extent of the damage to their homes at around midday tomorrow. Their house was damaged in the fire, but not destroyed.
"It's still standing... There are a lot of people worse off than us."
Some of the more than 70 houses and businesses destroyed by a bushfire in the coastal town of Tathra, Monday, March 19, 2018. Source: Getty
Helicopter pilot describes the destruction
Brian Jorgenson is a helicopter pilot for the fire brigade who was flying overhead trying to put out the rapidly spreading blaze on Sunday.
The helicopter pilot said he quickly realised the seriousness of the fire.
"There was literally smoke just everywhere. We got in the air and there was devastation everywhere you looked."
"We saw fires five or six kilometres long that ran literally into the ocean."
He said the strategy to combat the blaze turned to saving anything he could from the flames.
"You look at anything, a house, a shed, a car and ask is it worth saving because if you do maybe the one down the street goes up in flames."
"This was a big fire. This was a destructive fire."
Cops drove past and yelled 'Evacuate!': Tathra residents had trouble receiving bushfire warnings. Source: AAP
