 The recovery efforts from the October Northern California wildfires has been a monumental task. The wildfires destroyed or damaged thousands of residences, leaving many without a place to call home. The magnitude of the housing needs of the communities was met with an equal response. Local, state and federal agencies made housing solutions a top priority. California is a big state, but this is by and large the largest loss of homes collectively than any other fire event in the history of California. Agencies went to work to find resources to help thousands across multiple counties in need of a place to stay while evacuated, and also those that would not have a home to return to. Our job immediately after the disaster was to focus on the evacuation centers and setting up mass care and shelter sites, but pretty quickly we recognized that we were going to need transitional housing for people after when we moved from the response phase into the recovery phase. Once the Northern California wildfires were out, the aftermath was clear. To further complicate matters, many of the areas already had a low inventory of homes and rentals before the wildfires. Our mission was how do we find apartments, how do we find corporate lodging, how do we find places to put mobile homes, travel trailers in a very short time frame. The recovery operations taking place has been of epic proportions and housing has been one of the items at the top of the list. Many found their own housing solution, but for those that needed help, agencies worked tirelessly to secure temporary housing. We looked at whether a recreational vehicle was appropriate, whether a mobile modular home would be appropriate. We looked at tiny houses. We looked at connex, you know, the big shipping containers, and we looked to see how many of those different types of units we could fit appropriately on the sites that we identified. And ultimately we ended up with the site here at the fairgrounds. Survivors now call a new place home while they work on their long term plans. Aside from temporary and transitional housing, many are well into the rebuilding process to build a new where their home once stood. To further help with the recovery, officials looked at ways to make the recovery process more efficient for those that plan to rebuild. We're getting people into temporary housing and we are working with people where relaxing some of the regulations so that we can help people rebuild. It's not just homes, it's entire communities that are recovering and rebuilding together. The county, state, and federal are not going to leave you as you continue to recover from this tragedy. At a recent town hall meeting in Mendocino County, officials talked about the future of the community. Really we want to be able to look forward and say we'll be a stronger, more resilient community five years from now after going through the pain and suffering that the last five months have been. As the wildfire survivors continue moving forward working through the process, they are not alone. We can do this. We're there with them. We're going to be with them every step of the way and we are going to get them back in their home. The road to recovery is often a long one, but for many in this community, that road is leading back home. Visit our online newsroom at OESNews.com to learn more about this program and get the latest news and information from our team. Don't miss our next video on your Facebook timeline, like our page and you'll get the latest posts as they happen. If you're an Instagram user, you can see the latest snapshots by following our Cal OES Instagram account. And Twitter users can get instant access to our tweets from across the state by following Cal OES. Facebook handle typed as California underscore OES. Instagram and Twitter Cal OES handles are typed as Cal underscore OES.