The devastation of March 2018 is still fresh in the minds of many Tathra and Far South Coast residents.

For two locals that trauma has resurfaced in the most cruel of ways

Amanda Galvin Myers said she moved to Brogo from Tathra only two months ago "partly to get away from the fires - but they followed us".

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She has spent the past two days in the Bega Showground evacuation centre and on a charred and smokey New Year's Day attempted to head home to see what, if anything, remained.

She said the place in which she is staying currently still stands, but many others don't.

Ms Galvin Myers could only make it as far as McLeod Hill, with the highway further through to Quaama and Cobargo still closed.

While there she said she spoke with another resident, who had fought hard to save what structures they could. In a cruel twist of fate, they had also moved away from Tathra after losing much in the March 2018 blaze.

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Back in Bega and understandably emotional, Ms Galvin Myers said she had heard many properties along the highway near McLeod Hill had been destroyed, but that was yet to be officially confirmed.

"My friend's mother's house has burnt down. And there are dead horses by the side of the road - people left their gates open so they could escape, but they weren't able to," she said distraught.

"We spent Monday preparing the house - we were well prepared. But it came at us so quickly overnight.

"We saw the flames leaping up McLeods about 2am and my neighbour and I just thought 'my god, we have to get out of here'.

"The flames were leaping so high. Spectacular but awful."

She said she planned to go back tomorrow again to reassess.

"Even now it still feels very live, very much an emergency.

"The smoke is so thick and there's still a lot of ash, a lot of spot fires.

"Just because it's 'okay' now doesn't mean it will still be okay tomorrow on in a couple of days.