A lot of families in L.A. are affected by the fires.

Tell CNN about what they faced leaving those flames and the heartbreaking return home to find their homes are just gone.

I took my son, we ran to the car, and he was scared, he was crying, I was scared.

It's okay sweetie, it's okay.

Trying to, you know, be calm and try to get out of the Palisades as fast as we could.

I dropped to my knees and I just started praying, please God, please just save my house.

Getting ready to jump into the ocean.

All the firemen, they got the hell out of here, they evacuated quickly.

I should have followed suit.

We started piling up the torres in the back of my car.

I checked with my husband, I couldn't see him, there was so much smoke.

I checked with him, do you have all of them?

And he said, I think so, and we just left.

And he was walking around with his lantern in the house, Chase and I were talking to him, we were on FaceTime.

And he said he'll be fine, I'll be here when you guys come back.

He was in his bed when I found him.

It was so fast, a friend was able to go to the neighborhood once it had completely burned down and send us a video.

And that's when we found out for sure.

The idea of trying to figure out where we're going to be for the next month, where we're going to have this baby.

We had so many friends and a massive support group there that I was really, really planning to lean on.

And losing them, it's like, it's almost harder than losing our home.

I probably only have a dozen or so homes in my census track.

It's like half the town is gone, it's just too overwhelming.

We're just living with clothes on our back and lucky to have friends that are bringing us in.

I think everybody just needs to understand that they've done their best.

And, you know, as long as they're with their family and they have their lives, you know, life is long.

And I think we have that to look forward to.

You know, the trauma from these fires will affect hundreds of thousands of people in Los Angeles and likely beyond.

When the fires are contained, they could be among the most costly and significant urban fires in American history.

So how are the people there in Los Angeles and elsewhere supposed to cope with the trauma they've faced?

Joining me now is licensed clinical social worker and executive director of Resources for Resilience, Andupree Rogers.

Andupree, thank you for being with me.

First, let me start here with, for the people who are aware that this trauma could have a physical, emotional, mental effect.

What behaviors, what symptoms should they look for, be on the lookout for in themselves to know that they have to address the trauma?

So folks have been through an overwhelmingly stressful event, and it is really normal to be feeling a whole range of emotions.

And it's really normal to be having a whole range of behaviors.

Our nervous systems get thrown completely out of balance when these kinds of events happen.

Our brains put us, for our own safety in the moment, put us into either fight or flight or freeze.

And those states are helpful kind of in the midst of the disaster.

But what we don't want is to stay in those states, fight, flight, or freeze for long periods of time.

Over time, that can be where the trauma can get stuck and we can have problems.

So I want people to understand if they're feeling really anxious, irritable, angry, numb, disconnected, shut down.

Those are actually really normal reactions to a really not normal event.

If over time, if several weeks from now, people are still feeling like they have so much energy, it's stuck in their nervous system.

They can't sleep, they can't settle, they can't calm down.

They're kind of in this heightened state all the time.

After several weeks, that would be where it's time to really think, okay, I might need to get some more help.

Or a shut down state that gets stuck where I'm not really able to function, go out and about, take care of things.

Right now, it makes sense to not be able to take care of things, right?

We're not really in a place for decision making, planning, organizing, knowing how to fill out paperwork.

Things like that is hard right now.

It will get easier.

And what should people do for the people who are displaced?

Some of those are mental health professionals who would otherwise be able to help people who are calling for some assistance.

You told my producer about something called rapid reset.

What is that?

Yes.

So we teach, and anyone can do these, quick little what we call nervous system reset tools.

Things that we can do in the moment for about 20, 30 seconds that right now can help settle my stress response or sort of help my nervous system settle out of that fight, flight, freeze place, at least for the next little while.

And they're simple things.

I can show you a couple.

One of them is to, this is a really simple one, and I can demonstrate on the video.

You cross your arms kind of like this and place your hands at whatever height feels good and just tap side to side, either slowly or fast, whatever feels right.

And just notice what happens in your body and in your thoughts, but in your body when you tap.

And often, I don't know if you can see, it helps me sort of take a bigger breath.

My voice might've dropped a little bit.

I had some kind of anxiety in my chest.

It sort of begins to settle.

It's super simple, but it helps kind of stimulate parts of our brain to get the message.

All right, I'm okay right now.

I'm okay right now.

Another one we can do, these are just super simple, quick things, but they help communicate to the part of our brain that needs to get the message, you're safe enough right now.

You weren't safe, you're safe enough now.

So like taking a sip of water, noticing how it feels.

And these are things that in the moment, as I said, you may not be able to reach someone who is a reliable source for this type of coping mechanism, reassurance.

And these are things that we can do alone to help ourselves cope through these moments.

Andrew P.

Rogers, thank you so much for the information and the tools and for being with us this morning.