With Saturday night's winds calmed down, the race to build containment lines and prepare the region for another potentially dangerous weather situation is well and truly on.

A man has died helping a friend defend his property at Batlow. Forty-one homes are confirmed lost to the Dunns Road blaze, with the official count expected to grow in coming days. The livestock death toll is unknown, with graphic footage of dead cattle strewn across the landscape making its way around social media.

Tumbarumba residents have been warned supplies can't be brought in and that the township is still at "significant and unpredictable fire risk", the Snowy Valleys council says. There's no electricity, and limited communications, fuel and water availability - and between resource limitations, road closures and the ongoing fire risk, nothing will be getting in by road. Anyone left there is urged to get out, and head to Wagga via Tumbarumba Road.

Snowy Valleys Council has confirmed on its Facebook page that there are ongoing fears for the isolated communities within its boundaries.

"There is an inability to transport supplies and essential items into Tumbarumba by road due to the resource limitations, road closures and ongoing fire risk," a post on the Snowy Valleys Council Facebook page reads.

In Batlow, some homes are gone. A service station is gone. A hundred metres away, the pub's still standing. Other buildings, like the old hospital, couldn't be saved.

The clock is ticking, the Rural Fire Service says, with peak weather conditions predicted to return within days. The work they say they need to do to be fully prepared could take two weeks.

"In about four days' time we should see a peak in the weather conditions again, so we'll see elevated fire danger ratings and we'll see potential for additional fire movement," the RFS Riverina Zone's Bradley Stewart told The Daily Advertiser.

"Firefighters are working very, very hard to put in place good, solid containment options to try and prevent additional spread of this fire.

"This fire will continue to grow in size, it's going to take us a number of days, possibly a week or two, before we can get substantial breaks in place and control lines in effect. Until that occurs, this fire will continue to move across the landscape and it's critical that local residents stay up to date and stay informed."

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Residents and responders in the Snowy Valleys area say they are hopeful for more favourable conditions today, which will mean they may re-enter their towns and assess the damage.

Deputy mayor of Snowy Valleys Council, John Larter told The Daily Advertiser on Sunday morning that the smoke haze is still prohibiting re-entry to areas including Batlow, Talbingo, Adelong and Tumbarumba.

"Until the smoke lifts we won't know what's happened," Mr Larter said.

"We're all just waiting to see what the day brings. Right now, the conditions are not as severe, but the smoke is still strong. There is an active wind blowing so from a fire point of view, it will be interesting what transpires."

He said the few who had opted to remain in towns to defend their homes have been largely cut-off from those who evacuated, leading to a prevailing sense of panic as the worst-case scenarios unfolded yesterday.

"There's a lot of fear and distress," Mr Larter said.

"[Yesterday], there was a sense of panic around the conditions and what they would do. It appeared everything was in the path of the beast."

Without an opportunity to assess the damage so far, Mr Larter expressed concern for any who may have opted to stay in their towns.

"We don't know what's happening out there, we know that one has died in Batlow, and there might still be vulnerable or injured people about," he said.

"There would have been a lot of people taking in smoke and that is an injury in itself."

The Snowy Mountains Highway was temporarily re-opened on Sunday to locals only, as residents accessed their homes, food and supplies.

Powerlines remained strewn over the highway west of Adelong, where the road is closed to the Hume Highway. Firefighters were working to clear the roads to improve access for personnel and local traffic.

"We're coming off the back end of a peak in the weather so firefighters will be concentrated on opening up key roads today to try and facilitate the movement of emergency services vehicles to get in and do property protection work that needs to occur," Mr Stewart said.

"(It will also) help people that wish to leave the area that may have chosen to stay, and no long wish to do so.

"We also have a dire need to get up to Cabramurra into the power site up there, to ascertain any damage that's occurred. The fire here's having a significant effect on the electricity network and the flow-on effect is that there's interruption to services across three states."