When Lieutenant Ben Knight was sleeping on a couch at his church, in between feeding thousands of people at the Batemans Bay Evacuation Centre, he didn't consider taking a break.
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"I had to make sure the volunteers were okay and knew what was happening," he said.
Batemans Bay Salvation Army volunteers fed up to 1500 people in one night at the Hanging Rock Evacuation Centre, Lieutenant Knight, Corps Officer, said.
Businesses didn't hesitate to help out.
"So many local businesses came to us - some even without electricity - and said, 'can I cook a meal for you?'," he said.
Coles and Woolworths provided "whatever we needed".
"We would cook on site, go shopping - sometimes in the dark going through aisles picking up what we needed and bring it back," he said.
"The Saturday after New Year's Eve, we didn't count everybody, but it would have easily been 1500 people."
He said many people, evacuees included, wanted to help.
"People who had lost their homes said, 'I need to get my mind off what's happened'," he said. "You see the best in our community, people banding together. It sounds strange but it was a beautiful experience, as well as terrifying."
Lieutenant Knight said they catered for about 70 people when the evacuation centre was at Mackay Park from the beginning of December. They then set up at Hanging Rock, "knowing New Year's Eve was going to be such an awful day".
The charity provided three meals a day, plus snacks and coffee, between 6am and 9pm.
Lieutenant Knight said there was an eerie silence at the "packed" evacuation centre at times, and an anxious atmosphere.
"There was a fire near the oval at the evacuation centre, they had to call for a helicopter to come in to put it out," he said. "The smoke enveloped the building, you couldn't see out."
When Lieutenant Knight lost power and reception at his Sunshine Bay home, he decided to return to the church. He stayed there, sleeping on a couch when he had time to rest.
He praised other volunteers, who at one point, had all evacuated from their homes.
"They were sleeping on site and coming in and doing those long hours," he said. "They were amazing."
Seeing acts of kindness gave him strength.
"It was a horrifying time but at the same time we saw people rally together like I've never seen in this community before," he said. "There was a sense of optimism."
His faith also gave him and his family "a sense of peace".
"We're Christian, and the thing that got us through was knowing God was with us and with my family," he said.
To support the Batemans Bay Salvation Army, donate to the Red Shield Appeal at: www.salvationarmy.org.au/locations/new-south-wales/abbc/batemans-bay-corps/
