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The pitter-patter of rain drops.

Something to be thankful for in Northern California.

As Americans gather for Thanksgiving, the area's first major precipitation in months is, for many, a blessing.

It's helping control the fires that have ravaged the state.

But for first responders, the rain comes with its own challenges.

"The rain is really a double-edged sword for this fire.

It's definitely, any rain, any precipitation is gonna help with fire suppression.

But it definitely has its drawbacks and its disadvantages as well.

They've been able to sift through this really fine ash and when rain gets onto that really fine ash,

it turns it into sort of a muddy muck and makes it a lot more difficult.

In and around the town of Paradise, California, where 13,503 homes were burned,

hundreds of firefighters and rescue volunteers have vowed to keep up the search through the Thanksgiving holiday.

For over 500 people are still missing.

"We will have 830 people, both law enforcement, search and rescue, as well as well as volunteer staff

out in the field searching for remains."

For those that have been camping out since losing their homes, the rain brings an added sadness.

"I don't have anywhere to go so I feel, I feel pain and I feel anger.

I just really wish that somebody were able to to give us a place to go, just to get out of the rain."

Living in a soggy tent or searching for bone fragments in the mud: these aren't the only difficulties.

The rain is also increasing the risk of mudslides,

for the scorched earth no longer has as much vegetation to hold it in place.

For more infomation >> California wildfires: rain makes rescuers' work more difficult - Duration: 1:46.

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California May Be Source Of Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak - Duration: 0:36.

For more infomation >> California May Be Source Of Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak - Duration: 0:36.

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Central TX firefighters back home from wildfires in California - Duration: 2:41.

For more infomation >> Central TX firefighters back home from wildfires in California - Duration: 2:41.

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'I feel blessed': What Thanksgiving is like at a California fire shelter - Duration: 2:47.

For more infomation >> 'I feel blessed': What Thanksgiving is like at a California fire shelter - Duration: 2:47.

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Moro Rock in Giant Sequoias National Park, California, USA - Duration: 10:42.

For more infomation >> Moro Rock in Giant Sequoias National Park, California, USA - Duration: 10:42.

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North Texans return home from fighting California fires - Duration: 2:00.

For more infomation >> North Texans return home from fighting California fires - Duration: 2:00.

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California Cowboys Fans Who Lost Home To Wildfire Given Royal Treatment By Jones Family - Duration: 2:24.

For more infomation >> California Cowboys Fans Who Lost Home To Wildfire Given Royal Treatment By Jones Family - Duration: 2:24.

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'Just black, everything burned': Local firefighters return from California - Duration: 1:44.

For more infomation >> 'Just black, everything burned': Local firefighters return from California - Duration: 1:44.

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North Texas Firefighters Welcomed Home After Battling Deadly California Wildfires - Duration: 2:09.

For more infomation >> North Texas Firefighters Welcomed Home After Battling Deadly California Wildfires - Duration: 2:09.

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Republican Says California Fires Are "God's Punishment" To Liberal California - Duration: 3:21.

The Republican Party will do anything imaginable to try to shift the focus off of climate change

with regards to the massive deadly wildfires in the state of California and onto something

else, and that is exactly what a man by the name of David Johnson who happens to be the

chairman of the Columbiana County Republican Party in the state of Ohio.

He did that recently through a series of social media posts where he claimed that the fires

in California, the death and destruction taking place there was not because of climate change,

that was simply God's punishment for California being so darn liberal.

So the 70 plus people who have died, which that number grows higher by the day.

The nearly 1000 people missing in these fires.

It's not because we're not doing anything to protect us from climate change.

And the state's gone through a years of droughts.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

It's not even as trump said, because we're not raking it enough.

According to David Johnson.

It's because God is pissed off at California for being too liberal.

And what's funny here is that this is the typical Republican response to any natural

disaster, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, all of the major evangelicals out there on

the Republican side, we're saying, well, it's because there are a lot of gay people there.

And God sent the storm to wash them away for getting the fact that Louisiana is a solidly

red state surrounded by other solidly red states that consistently votes Republican.

Yeah.

God was punishing them just because of the small community of gay people in New Orleans.

Uh, so to Mr Johnson who says that God's pissed off in California right now, why do we still

have hurricanes hitting deep red areas in the south, North Carolina, South Carolina,

Florida, Georgia, all of those states had been smacked with hurricanes over the last

18 months.

So why is God mad at them or, and hear me out on this?

Is it because the entire climate of the planet is changing?

Because we as human beings have been too irresponsible to take care of it?

No.

I am sick and tired of hearing these idiotic excuses from Republicans.

Oh, this is God's wrath.

Nothing we can do about it.

It's just going to happen.

That's a lie.

There's plenty that we can do.

Well, at this point, maybe there's not, but 10 years ago there was plenty we could do.

We just chose not to because as a country we're incredibly arrogant and most Republicans

told us, Huh?

How arrogant is it for us to assume that we have the power to even change the climate?

Well, scientists told us we were doing it.

They've been telling us that since the late 19 seventies, but sure, go ahead and take

the side of.

We're all just too arrogant to do something about it.

The problem is we weren't too arrogant to think we could change the climate.

We are too arrogant to think that we couldn't stop it, and that's why we're in the situation

that we're in now.

We can expect more wildfires, more droughts, more floods, stronger hurricanes, and I can

promise you zero of these coming natural disasters will be because God is pissed off at a portion

of this country.

For more infomation >> Republican Says California Fires Are "God's Punishment" To Liberal California - Duration: 3:21.

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News Wrap: Rain finally falls on scorched California - Duration: 5:30.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Rain fell across California today for the first time since a pair of deadly

wildfires started raging at both ends of the state.

The death toll from the so-called Camp Fire in the north rose to 81 people today.

Some 870 others are still missing.

Firefighters in the town of Paradise said the showers will help them battle the wildfire

that's 80 percent contained.

But the rainfall will also hinder their search efforts.

RICK CARHART, Cal Fire: The rain is really a double-edged sword for this fire.

It's definitely -- any rain, any precipitation is going to help with fire suppression, clearly,

but it definitely has its drawbacks and its disadvantages as well.

The hillsides, without the ground cover that's been burned away, it definitely makes this

more potential for mudslides.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In Southern California, firefighters are also bracing for potential mudslides.

The Woolsey Fire there is now more than 98 percent contained.

We will have a closer look at the challenges of recovery efforts in Northern California

after the news summary.

The humanitarian aid group Save the Children estimates that 85,000 Yemeni children under

the age of 5 have died of extreme hunger since that country's civil war broke out in 2015.

It attributes that tragic toll to a Saudi-led coalition's intervention in the conflict and

recent fighting in and around the port city of Hodeidah.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said peace talks between Yemen's warring parties will

take place next month in Sweden.

Members of the international police organization Interpol today elected a South Korean to be

the agency's next president, in a surprise defeat over a Russian front-runner.

Kim Jong Yang edged out Russian general Alexander Prokopchuk, whose candidacy had stoked fears

that Russia could use the role to target political opponents.

Interpol's secretary-general reaffirmed the agency's impartiality when he spoke after

today's vote in Dubai.

JURGEN STOCK, Interpol Secretary-General: No matter, of course, what the nationality

of the president is, it's not affecting Interpol's neutrality and the independence of our organization.

It is fundamental to Interpol's existence that we are neutral and that we are independent.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Kim has temporarily led Interpol since October, after his Chinese predecessor

was arrested on corruption charges.

Back in this country, the number of abortions in the U.S. has plunged to a historic low.

New data out today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a 26 percent

decrease between 2006 and 2015.

It's the smallest number of American women seeking abortions since Roe v. Wade became

law in 1973.

The decline was largely attributed to state laws aimed at restricting the procedure and

better access to contraception.

Democrats have flipped another seat in the House of Representatives, this time in Utah.

Ben McAdams, the mayor of Salt Lake City -- or county, rather -- defeated his Republican

opponent, two-term incumbent Congresswoman Mia Love, by nearly 700 votes.

That victory gave Democrats a net gain of 39 seats in the House.

On Wall Street today, stocks tried to claw their way back after yesterday's massive sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell just under a point to close at 24464.

The Nasdaq rose 63 points, and the S&P 500 added eight.

And former Librarian of Congress James Billington died yesterday at a hospital in Washington

of complications from pneumonia.

Billington was a foremost scholar on Russian culture.

In his 28 years at the helm of the library, he doubled the size of its collection and

he helped to launch the National Book Festival in Washington.

Billington's tenure spanned five presidential administrations, before he retired in 2015.

He spoke to Jeffrey Brown back in 2007 about the library's efforts to preserve historical

audio recordings.

JAMES BILLINGTON, Librarian of Congress: We're trying to preserve the creativity of the American

people, in all its richness and variety, all formats, all of which really, since about

the mid-19th century, have been on relatively fragile, perishable material, often hard to

find, often impossible to play back or to read even, because of brittle paper and so

forth.

So we're trying to record this, and we're trying to save it for future generations.

And it's part of the -- a big part of the American story.

JUDY WOODRUFF: James Billington was 89 years old.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": the latest on survivors coping in fire-ravaged California;

new orders from President Trump for U.S. troops on the border raise legal questions; Chief

Justice John Roberts rebukes the president's criticisms of the judiciary; the Mississippi

Senate race becomes more competitive after controversial comments; and much more.

For more infomation >> News Wrap: Rain finally falls on scorched California - Duration: 5:30.

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La solidaridad de los latinos en medio de la catástrofe en California | Noticiero | Telemundo - Duration: 2:11.

For more infomation >> La solidaridad de los latinos en medio de la catástrofe en California | Noticiero | Telemundo - Duration: 2:11.

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Housing California residents displaced by fires proves difficult - Duration: 4:54.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It's a very difficult Thanksgiving holiday in California for tens of thousands

of residents there.

While the fire in southern part of the state is said to be contained, there's fear that

rain could lead to mudslides in the coming days.

Meanwhile, in the northern part of the state, the Camp Fire is still not fully out, and

it's left a burn scar, so to speak, that's larger than the city of San Jose.

Many people are still stuck with temporary shelters and few housing options.

Raquel Maria Dillon of public media KQED has been reporting from the area around Chico.

And I spoke with her by phone just a short time ago.

Started by asking what she's witnessed.

RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, KQED: There's just so many of them.

I think the folks who are worse off are stuck at this Wal-Mart parking lot in R.V.s or an

empty field and tents.

And when I left there earlier today, the rain was just beginning to come down for real,

and it's a low-lying spot, and there's a lot of concern in the community for getting those

folks out of there, or just helping them get through the bad weather.

People are putting wooden pallets underneath the tents and getting tarps out.

I got the sense that some of those folks were really living on the edge when they were back

home in Paradise.

One guy told me straight up he was homeless.

Another gentleman was telling me about his asthma and his medical conditions, and he

really shouldn't be sleeping out in a tent.

But I will say, the vast majority of the evacuees are crashing with family or friends on couches,

in people's R.V.s parked in driveways and other options like that, but people -- families

are split up, and it's a very stressful time and their situations will not last forever.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, who is in charge of providing facilities for these people who don't have

a home or a place to go anymore?

I mean, is there a visible organized presence doing the organizing?

RAQUEL MARIA DILLON: Yes, FEMA has opened up an old shuttered Sears department store.

And people pick a number on the way in.

They wait a little while.

They get their numbers called and then they wait a long time again to connect to services.

There's nonprofits there.

It's mainly FEMA and the state office of emergency services.

And there is aid available, but there just aren't enough homes, motel and hotel rooms

to put up all the people who fled the fire.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But you said people have to wait, that they come, and you said they take

a number and then they wait.

RAQUEL MARIA DILLON: Exactly.

It's a bureaucracy.

Some of the people I spoke with, you know, couldn't verify their addresses or didn't

have the right paperwork.

I spoke to one couple that had gotten a voucher going into a motel room, but they came back

to tie up some other loose ends.

They had forgotten their FEMA number and had to go back.

And so it's a bureaucracy.

And I think people who might be struggling with other issues might have a hard time navigating

that bureaucracy and need a lot of help.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, what's going to happen, Raquel, on Thanksgiving, tomorrow?

Is there any -- is there any hope for a better living situation by then, or are they -- what's

going to happen?

RAQUEL MARIA DILLON: Well, the FEMA center will be open 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. tomorrow.

There's a lot of organizations in town, in the town of Chico, that are hosting dinners

and making sure that people are well-fed and taken care of on such an important holiday.

But big picture is, Chico has a housing crisis.

It's a city of 86,000 people that has poured out their generosity for these fire evacuees.

But I found a report from last year that said the vacancy rate in Chico is 1.9 percent.

And it might have even gone down further this year.

So in terms of long-term futures for these people to stay, it's a real problem.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It sounds like there's just no immediate housing solution for many of

these people.

RAQUEL MARIA DILLON: Correct.

And some of my colleagues at KQED have done some interesting reporting about FEMA has

80 trailers at the McClellan Air Force Base right outside of Sacramento, but they are

not designated for this particular emergency.

It just takes a long time to find the right place to put them.

You have to have sewer and electricity.

And it has to be a environmentally sound place for housing for families.

So that's a real challenge.

And it's just moving a lot slower than anyone had thought.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A really, really tough situation.

Raquel Maria Dillon with KQED, thank you very much.

RAQUEL MARIA DILLON: Thank you.