“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” the Gospel of John tells us. What it does not say directly — but rather, it demonstrates — is the tendency for truth to irritate and offend those who hear it for the first time.

It happened over the weekend in Paradise, Calif., when wildfire destroyed astartling 6,453 homes.Before the fire, the Sierra town had a population of around 27,000, many of them elderly.

On Sunday, the Butte County sheriff announced the death toll in Paradise had reached 29, matching the largest recorded number of deaths in modern California history from a single fire. But more than 200 people remained unaccounted for, raising the probability that more bodies would be recovered.

Paradise was the epicenter of a vast outbreak of flames. More than 4,000 firefighters were battling the Camp and Woolsey Fires that have burned more than 180,000 acres, with more than 52,000 people evacuated from their homes.

In the midst of the devastation, President Donald Trump redirected the attention away from the flames to focus on the fuel.

“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,”Trump declared Saturday on his Twitter feed. “Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”

Predictably, California officials and Hollywood celebrities took offense at Trump’s remark.

“The president’s message ... is ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines,”said Brian Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters.

But here’s truth: On Sept. 24, 2016, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill 1463, designed to reduce fire hazard areas by clearing brush around utility lines. The billpassed unanimously in both chambers of the Legislature before Brown vetoed it.

Here in Butler County, we face similar hazards but in very different combinations. Wind and fire are not the adversary here — water and undergrowth are the ingredients of the local deadly recipe; they add up to flash flooding.

It will become increasingly imperative in coming years for all of us be remain vigilant against the potential for flooding hazards, including leaves, branches and other debris clogging drainage culverts; brush from trail clearing projects near streams; or any other vegetation or debris clogging drainage channels.

As we all learned in July 2017, one heavy rain can swamp an entire neighborhood, with devastating results.

The undeniable truth is that wherever you live, weather extremes are to be anticipated; and if we do simple things now to prepare for the worst, we can prevent much damage that could happen later.

If we know what’s ahead, we have no excuse not to plan for it.