| No Images? Click here   By Nick Baumann and Samantha StoreyHuffPost's Jenavieve Hatch and freelance photographer Cayce Clifford have spent much of the past several weeks in Paradise, California, the town the Camp Fire destroyed. They recently spent some time with Robert Bean, a Paradise resident who returned to his family's properties to see what remained. We asked Hatch about her story — and the fire.
How did this story come about? Last week, Cal Fire and Butte County Sheriff's Office slowly starting letting some people from Paradise and Magalia go back to their homes. I'd been up to Paradise a couple times the week prior because they let press through, but I wanted to go with someone from the town who had experienced such a huge loss, and be with them to see the actual effect this is having on displaced human beings. An Airbnb host connected Cayce Clifford, our photographer, to Robert Bean. We met with him on Monday evening and made a plan to go back on Tuesday and have him show us around. What did you find that most surprised you? Robert knew every single corner of his home, his parents' home, and the homes he was renting out, even though they'd been burned down. I think we take for granted our homes, how instinctively we know where everything is, how used to our space we become when we've made a home somewhere. These houses were completely burnt down but he walked through them like they were still intact — here's the master bedroom, here's the office, etc. This was a man who knew his home by heart, and loved being back even though there was nothing standing. What was the hardest part about writing, reporting or editing this piece? Robert is a really, really passionate and philosophical and personable guy — incredibly chatty. We spent more than three hours together in Paradise and at the place he's staying in Chico. There was so much I felt I could have put in about the kind of person he is and all of his funny stories. So it was difficult to decide a) what story I was actually telling and b) how best to tell it. For me, his affection for his home and his family's homes was the most touching thing. I wanted to take readers into that really vulnerable and soft place, so chose to just take them with me on the walk around his properties. I think that Cayce Clifford's photography captured what I wanted to capture in writing, too — his personality and his uniqueness. Her photos are really amazing. Having her there made it so much better. What do you want readers to take away? The news cycle moves really fast. The attention span is pretty short for this kind of thing. Paradise isn't a major city. In fact it's the complete opposite, people came here for the privacy and small town vibe. But 88 people died. An entire town is gone. Families are still searching for their missing loved ones. Thousands of people are now homeless in some capacity. I want readers to stop and think about the weight of that. How that traumatizes a community. How long the road to rebuilding and recovery is going to be. Robert's story felt like a really good conduit for that. Even more must reads:
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