Forced from Paradise: Life after one of California's deadliest wildfires

Holly Ratliff is one of about 50,000 people who fled their homes when the Camp Fire swept through the Sierra Nevada foothills in California last November. Thousands have scattered across the country — some to communities in California like Lake Almanor and others as far away as Florida and Hawaii.

Americans rarely think about internally displaced populations. But the single mother of three is part of a growing population of Americans, uprooted from their communities by natural disasters and forced to reestablish themselves in new settings.

Ratliff fought to stay in the town she grew up in surrounded by her familyeven if it meant that on some nights she did not know where she would sleep. SPECIAL OFFERTo thank you for your support, here’s a deal on a Washington Post digital subscription$29 for one year

Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube