When Paradise Mayor Jody Jones first heard President Trump was coming to survey the destruction from the Camp Fire, she says she felt a twinge of unease.
“If you’re a normal person, you always think, ‘Oh, it’d be cool to meet the president.’ But you think it would be about something positive,” Jones told the Sacramento Bee. “Not because your town has just burned down.”
Trump’s initial tweet after the fires and an ensuing feud with California leaders didn’t help matters.
“I felt this nervousness,” the mayor added. “Are the state and the federal government really open about coming together? Are they on the same page about helping us?”
But the weight of the moment proved larger than the differences in personality and politics. As she walked the burned-out streets of Paradise with Trump, Governor Jerry Brown, and Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom, she says she felt “gratified” by the sense of solidarity. And she found the president to be empathetic and eager to help.
Jones is trying to lead a city which has been almost wholly destroyed by fire after losing her own home as well. Most city leaders, police, and firefighters also saw their houses destroyed.
The Camp Fire is now the deadliest and most destructive in California’s history. It has burned 151,272 acres and more than 15,000 structures. At least 79 people have died, with 699 still unaccounted for. If a tragedy like that doesn't bring people together, nothing will.