Posted on 01/09/2025 11:19:24 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
WASHINGTON — The destruction caused by the Los Angeles-area wildfires, possibly the worst ever in California, is almost certain to rank as one of the most costly natural disasters in U.S. history, with the total economic toll well into the tens of billions of dollars.
One preliminary estimate calculated by AccuWeather, the weather forecasting service, put the damage and total economic loss at $52 billion to $57 billion — a sum that could rise if the fires continue to spread.
J.P. Morgan on Thursday doubled its expectations of economic losses from a day earlier, saying they would be closer to $50 billion.
Five fires have already scorched thousands of acres in and around Los Angeles, forcing at least 130,000 people to be evacuated and damaging or destroying about 2,000 buildings. Five people have died.
While it may be days before the full extent of the cost is known, the sheer number of expensive homes and businesses affected suggests that the overall economic damage will likely be greater than the $30-billion loss caused by the Camp fire across California in 2018, considered the state’s most expensive wildfire to date.
The Maui wildfires in 2023, by comparison, caused $5.6 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
By the NOAA estimates, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is the most expensive U.S. natural disaster, costing an estimated $200 billion.
On Thursday, experts at Moody’s said that they expected the insured losses stemming from the L.A. County fires to run in the billions of dollars given the high value of properties in coastal Pacific Palisades, where the first blazes broke out on Tuesday.
Fires burning around Santa Monica and Malibu have torched homes that are among the most expensive in the country, with a median value of over $2 million, said AccuWeather.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
LA County will have to get in line for disaster relief. Palestine (OH), Maui and Western Carolina are still waiting. (somehow I think LA County will vault to the top of the list).
This is not a natural disaster in the least… Between the mismanagement of under brush, homeless people cooking math and the arsonists, there’s zero chance this is a natural disaster
Was about the post something along the same lines.....it’s a self inflicted injury.
How much has been spent on the high speed rail fiasco?
Here’s a video from LA Fire Dept on how great diversity is.
The quote at the end is … extraordinary.
https://x.com/DefiantLs/status/1877459879721414935
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Insurance companies will take an epic beating.
There’s not a home in LA county with a market value of less than $ 1mil. Almost all of them have a mortgage and therefore insurance.
FEMA ended it all for the NC people today. Dumped out of motels and freezing in RV’s. Weather is bad for them.
I don't think I said burning forest floor debris was the issue.
It was the close proximity of the cheek by jowl houses and a lack of water and air support [high winds precluded air support].
The circumstances that produced this fire were identical to the Santa Rosa Tubbs Fire of fall 2017. High winds carried fire from open areas with badly managed vegetation suburban neighborhoods. The real problem is that those houses were built with Class A asphalt shingles on the roofs. In Santa Rosa, the high winds lifted the shingles and they caught fire, becoming burning blobs of tar that would stick to the Masonite siding of the next house and become a burning drool of hot tar down that siding. It was very effective. So to blame building codes, minimum lot sizes, house-to-lot-size specifications, and setback requirements may be true by degree, but it is not in terms of the actual chain reaction nature of house-to-house transmission of ignitions.
I'm speaking to your biologically, geographally, and financially catastrophic idea of banning all BLM burning on air pollution grounds. I develop processes for native plant restoration. One of those findings is that Carex barbarae does a fantastic job of retaining soils, protecting structures, and providing visual appeal in the wildland urban interface (WUI). In a fire it's the most sedate thing imaginable. Once the fire is done there is no combustible fuel. Six weeks later, even with a fire in July, the sedge has come up green. Other plants (particularly Gamochaeta ustulata) virtually preclude wildland fire crossing a line. I am hypothesizing that aboriginal people used it precisely that way, as well as a way to keep walking trails clear of spiny annuals. I'm telling you that I know whereof I speak: your preference is psychotic biologically, geologically, and financially.
No problem, another 250 Billion to Ukraine should cover it.
Yup—crunched the numbers on another thread.
Many insurance companies are still heavily invested in CA.
They will get burned this time....
and then be gone.
Yes, sad to think of the beautiful classic cars in some of those collections.
“They are struggling to gain traction with selling the narrative that the ‘climate’ is the sole cause.”
Won’t be working with President Trump back at the helm! He’s gonna beat Gov. Newsom like a rented mule over this.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. *SMIRK*
Be safe! Keep us posted. We have any number of CA FReepers dealing with this!
Who gives a shxt... I don’t. Let Commiefornia deal with what they showed.
You should, because FJB just said the US taxpayer (that probabluy includes you) is paying for it all:
There about to have to move to Hotel Artemis.
As long as the winds stay down like today, we should be okay. Thanks for your concern.
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