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Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley is pleading with residents to conserve water ahead of Saturday's extreme conditions.
"The guys at Shoalhaven Water are working around the clock to maintain critical infrastructure around water to make sure fire crews have enough to fight fires," Cr Findley said.
"I need to ask people not to hose hard surfaces today, it is pointless. If they want to prepare, they need to move everything away from their buildings and start with the first metre around their homes, then three metres and then five metres."
She said moving barbecues with covers away from walls, moving garden furniture away from the home, removing and wetting down mulch should be the focus of preparation ahead of tomorrow's forecast dreadful conditions.
"Conserving water today will help take pressure of the whole system as the guys go about their business of trying to keep it flowing."
Speaking from the evacuation centre in Ulladulla, Cr Findley said traffic was now flowing after being backed up from Milton to the Bawley Point turnoff overnight as people told to leave the South Coast were caught by highway closures.
She commended the volunteer effort mounted by residents to get water and food to evacuees who spent the night on the roadside.
"A great big thank you for the enormous volunteer efforts and random acts of kindness passing water through windows to trapped motorists. There was no official support for people on the highway so the community really stepped up to help out."
During the night trucks with 16 pallets of water made the long and difficult journey from Canberra to Ulladulla.
Cr Findley said the evacuation centre now had sufficient supplies to get it through the next few days.
"We do not need donations of clothing but welcome packaged food and fresh fruit, feminine hygeine products and incontinence pads."
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