NSW holiday spots become ghost towns after 'mass exodus'

Bermagui has become a ghost town during peak tourist season.

The Bega Valley shire holiday spot is south of Narooma on the NSW south coast, and is usually thriving at this time of year.

But with the bushfire crisis, roads are closing, the last locals and visitors who want to have left, and preparations are well underway for an expected catastrophic fire day tomorrow.

Sue Singleton owns the town's motel - which is now empty - and is planning to stay with her husband despite a call to evacuate.

"There was a mass exodus," she said.

"People saw the writing on the wall, and cancelled and left."

But she said the place is deserted, with the long term impact too difficult to say.

"With the power down, all the businesses are closed," she said.

"Long term is going to be huge for all the businesses.

"We've got businesses here who don't know if they've lost their properties."

They're now putting up friends who live further out into the bush who she said have resigned themselves to the fact their house may be lost.

"We'll work through it and support each other," she said.

"Bermagui's a very strong community."

RFS Captain Tim Holdsworth said crews are preparing the town in case of possible fires, including advising people to leave, door to door.

"That's the safest option. A minimum amount of people in town would be best," he said.

"We've got a lot of people out. There's still a lot of people who want to defend. Resources are stretched.

"It's a pretty big fire out there. I'm optimistic. But it's a big fire front and the weather conditions aren't great."

Algis Pleckauskas, who is in his 80s, is one of the people staying put, with his wife. This is despite having no power and no mains water.

He has buckets and shovels read, and said if the fire comes from the north as he believed it will, he'll fight it.

"Hopefully we'll miss the ferocity of the fire," he said, adding that he wasn't scared despite being told to evacuate.

"If it comes from the south we'll go. We'll go to the beach."