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How Camp Fire evacuees are staying strong on Day 5 without a home

Laura Whitaker, who lost her Paradise home, has been sleeping in a tent with her dog, Sadie at the Walmart parking lot in Chico after evacuating.

The Walmart parking lot in Chico has become a place of shelter for hundreds of the victims of the Camp Fire.

Cheryl and her cat, Cody have been sleeping in her van since they were forced to evacuate from Paradise on Thursday.

"I feel very fortunate to have a van. I look at other people with a car and kids, and I feel like I'm driving around in a hotel," she added.

Chery's home is among the thousands reduced to rubble and ashes. Like many of the evacuees ABC10 spoke to, Cheryl felt grateful to be alive.

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"I just worked a campaign and I saw ugliness that I had never seen in my life, and it seems like in these tragedies, we forget which party you're on. We all come together, and I hope we can just keep this going because it does bring out the best in people," Cheryl said.

Laura Whitaker also lost her Paradise home. Whitaker sleeping in a tent with her dog Sadie at the Walmart parking lot.

"I had one morning where I just kind of broke down and cried, but for the most part I'm going to keep a smile on my face," said the 13-year resident of Paradise.

Whitaker added she did not think she was going to make out of Paradise alive.

"I feel stronger now than I probably have felt in years, even in the middle of all this," she explained.

As for what's next?

"I don't know. There are no answers yet, there are just no answers," Whitaker said.

Meanwhile, Cheryl said she was going to focus on volunteering.

"We need a lot of people to bring Paradise back. It's a blank slate now, it can be anything it wants. We can learn from the past and rebuild much better," Cheryl added.


Watch More … "California Wildfires: The New Normal" is ABC10's new, 9-part series on how wildfires are changing lives across Northern California. Episode 1: When disaster approaches, the body cams of first responders and eyewitness accounts are the best way to get an idea of what it's like to face a life-or-death race against the clock.

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