California wildfire evacuees prepare their tents for steady rains

Rain has been falling on the scorched ground left when wildfires tore through communities in Northern California, including the devastated town of Paradise,killing at least 83people and destroying thousands of homes.

The rain began Wednesdayin areas around the town of 27,000 people, 280 kilometres northeast of San Francisco.

Rain that is forecast through the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend could aid crews fighting wildfires while complicating efforts to recover human remains.

Forecasters say the rain is hitting slopes stripped of vegetation becauseof wildfires that have burned for nearly two weeks, movingacross62,000 hectaresof the Sierrafoothills.

While this is expected toinflictmore misery on evacuees camped out in tents, hydrologist Cindy Matthews of the U.S. National Weather Service said the volcanic soil and relatively shallow slopes in thefire zone mean the ground is unlikely to become saturated enoughfor hillsides to give way to landslides.

The service has issued flash-flood watchesfor recent burn areas.

Forecasters say the rainsare likely to be accompanied by winds of 72 km/h in some areas.

In a Walmart parking lot in Chico, Calif., where hundreds ofevacuees hadtaken refuge, Amy Sheppard was packing her belongings into a black plastic garbage bag in the rain on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old woman saidshe plans to go to a hotel where her sister and one-year-old niece are staying after the three of them camped in the lot for four days.

The family lost their home in Magalia, 30 kilometres east of Chico.

Several dozen tents remain at the lot, although most services have been stopped. Sheppard saidmany of the remaining people are homeless, not victims of the fire.

Kelly Boyer, who lost his home in Paradise, has been sharinga tent with a friend in the same Walmart parking lot, where overnight low temperatures have fallen tojust above freezing.

Boyer has received wooden pallets and plastic tarps donatedby local residents to keep his tent off the ground and dry, buthe said the rain would still make a mess. "It's going to be mudcity," he told Reuters.