POWER in some Upper Murray communities may not be restored for months, Towong Shire's mayor has warned.
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David Wortmann said electricity supplier AusNet had been hit badly with scores of burnt timber power poles having to be replaced with concrete versions.
"AusNet are talking weeks, maybe months," Cr Wortmann said of full resupply to places beyond Corryong.
"The infrastructure that's been damaged is enormous."
Cr Wortmann said Corryong was the only part of the fire zone in his shire that had power, but noted generators producing that supply were consuming 20,000 litres of diesel per day.
It is hoped Walwa, which has been without electricity since last week, can have a generator supply from Thursday.
Regional Development Minister Jaclyn Symes stated it would power 70 offline customers and that AusNet was continuing to assess main lines damage at Cudgewa.
Cr Wortmann says Walwa having no power, landlines or mobile phones meant residents, who would otherwise have followed an evacuation directive, had stayed.
"They didn't get the message really, so there is still a lot of people there," he said.
Cr Wortmann said Telstra was working to provide an interim mobile phone service to Walwa, which saw its coverage cut with damage to a tower near Jingellic.
As a Granya CFA volunteer, the mayor fought fires last Saturday at Tintaldra and Walwa and has been shocked at the impact to farm land.
"We've had bushfires before and it comes out into ag land, but I've never seen so much land burnt," Cr Wortmann said.
"It's just devastating, it really is.
"There's people's livelihoods, the core breeding stock it takes years to recover from something like this and the businesses of course, because it's closed off, there's no access, their livelihoods have been affected."
Cr Wortmann said the damages bill for the shire was yet to be tallied, but the council was thankful for the support of other municipalities and Victorian and federal governments.
"It makes the communities feel they haven't been forgotten about," he said.
The council has requested a pop-up Centrelink office to be established at Corryong as part of a rollout flagged by the federal government.
Cr Wortmann was speaking to The Border Mail after a community meeting at Mitta on Wednesday afternoon at a packed oval pavilion.
The audience heard CFA and Department of Environment, Water, Land and Planning chiefs outline plans for Friday's severe fire weather.
CFA Commander Paul King said it was likely a 255-kilometre fire front from Jingellic north of the Murray River to Mallacoota on the coast would form when blazes joined up.
DELWP deputy incident controller Ron Patterson said after Friday backburning would start to contain the fire, south of Corryong, to the east of Dartmouth.
Tallangatta police station commander Sergeant Mick Savage told the audience "please don't trust Facebook" pointing to rumour and innuendo such as the army pulling out.
He urged consumers to focus on official sources such as Vic Emergency app and website.
Agriculture Victoria and Department of Health and Human Services representatives also spoke.
Further community meetings will be held on Thursday in Towong Shire.
Sessions are scheduled for Tallangatta Memorial Hall from 11am and the Granya Hall at 2pm.
