Tuesday evening, hundreds of fire survivors bedded down for another cold night in the parking lot of the Walmart in Chico, where a community of Camp Fire evacuees has set up an unofficial and unorganized shanty town.
Shortly after 7 p.m., employees of Walmart began posting signs instructing the campers it was time to go.
By Wednesday morning, as rain began falling, many had heeded the signs and left. About 50 tents remained pitched on the grass lot.
But some campers remained resolute, saying they would rather stay in the Walmart lot than take a chance on getting sick or winding up someplace unfamiliar. More than 140 people have contracted norovirus at official shelters, according to reports from Butte County officials.
"I'd rather be out here and catch a cold than be in a shelter and catch something worse," said Billy Elgen, an evacuee from Magalia.
The shanty town took shape right after the Camp Fire displaced tens of thousands of area residents. It has become known as 'Wallywood,' a mash-up of the store's name and a sardonic nod to the opulence of Hollywood, the polar opposite of the poverty and loss of those who fled the Camp Fire in Paradise and now find themselves homeless.
Walmart spokeswoman Delia Garcia said the store has asked campers to leave for their own good.
"We continue to be concerned about the health, safety and well-being of the individuals remaining on our property and have been working cooperatively with city, county and state officials and local non-profits to increase capacity at local shelters and help create good temporary housing options," Garcia told The Sacramento Bee Tuesday night, adding that the company has donated more than $500,000 to relief organizations. "The weather forecast from the National Weather Service showing rain beginning tonight and continuing through Friday has heightened our existing concerns and increased the urgency to find a more sustainable solution. We are asking the remaining individuals to evacuate the property and transition to more appropriate shelter."
Bob Phibbs, a national retail consultant, said Walmart has been put in a difficult spot and "there are no easy answers."
The retailer doesn't want to appear heartless but "the precedent gets awfully dangerous" if the tent city lingers indefinitely, particularly with Black Friday on the horizon, said Phibbs, president of a New York consulting firm called The Retail Doctor.
"I would rather take the (public relations) blowback now than a month from now, when you're going to put people out on the street before Christmas," he said.
But Burt Flickinger III, an independent retail consultant in New York, said Walmart should err on the side of letting people stay. He recalled that a major supermarket chain, Pathmark, essentially turned over its entire store near Ground Zero to first responders for months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
"Walmart like any retail leader, could use the goodwill," Flickinger said.
Butte County officials are also pushing people to move from the lot and head to sanctioned shelters - with hot showers, food and beds - including one just-opened facility in the town of Gridley, about 28 miles away. County volunteers wandered through the jumble of commandeered shopping carts, folding tables and piles of donations over the weekend, offering rides and gas cards to those who would go.
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