In the era when American cities regularly caught fire, the widespread destruction seeded what looks, in retrospect, like possibility.

While the insurance cost of the devastation is estimated to be around $30 billion, another tally puts the total damage at upward of $250 billion.

Advisers to California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the week monitoring new White House advance staffers’ social media accounts, hoping for clues for where President Donald Trump might be headed when he lands in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to talk about the wildfire damage.