The Ongoing Disaster of the Los Angeles County Wildfires

This is an ongoing story so the details could have changed by the time you read this story. Officials around the area are still trying to pinpoint the cause of the fires. Those conclusions will come later when the fires are eventually contained.

One problem being tossed around — and that has been on the table for years — is too many people living in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Crystal Kolden, the director of the Fire Resilience Center at the University of California, Merced said open space, parks and houses are making homes and businesses in the WUI more susceptible to fire.

“Many of those houses and subdivisions are laid out in ways that have lots of highly flammable shrubs and trees growing on and in-between lots,” Kolden noted. “So fire burns exceptionally well in this area because the vegetation throws embers that land on houses, the houses catch fire and produce more embers.”

In spite of all those risks, statistics show between 1990 and 2010, over 25 million people moved into area’s listed as WUI, and 12.7 million homes were built. In LA County’s WUI, Pacific Palisades — known for its scenic coastline, beautiful parks and hiking trails — homes list for an average $3.4 million.

Many of those homes are now gone. Also lost in the fires around the area are homes owned by celebrities who’ve lost everything.

• Billy Crystal — Crystal and his wife lived in their home for 45 years
• Maria Shriver — Lost everything and said her neighborhood and friends lost everything
• James Woods — His home was reduced to ash as he watched on a security camera
• Paris Hilton — Her home burned to the ground
• Mandi Moore — Lost her home and said her friends and loved ones have also lost everything
• Ricki Lake — Her dream home overlooking the Pacific Ocean is gone
• Sir Anthony Hopkins — His California home is gone
• John Goodman — His $4.6 million home was destroyed
• Anna Faris — Her $5 million and 4,000 square foot home is gone

AccuWeather is one of several groups and organizations estimating the dollar loss of the wildfires devastating Los Angeles County. On Saturday of last week, AccuWeather’s Chief Meteorologist, Jonathan Porter went out on a limb and said damages and economic losses could land somewhere between $135 billion and $150 billion.

“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in U.S. modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” Porter said. “To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4% of the annual GDP of the state of California.”

At the time this is written, others usually doing such estimates are remaining mum. Aon PLC and Moodys both agree it will be the costliest in U.S. history but how costly remains to be seen.

“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody’s analysts wrote.

Source link: PropertyCasualty360.com — https://bit.ly/3Cc09fT

Source link: Associated Press — https://bit.ly/3PCrgnm

Source link: PropertyCasualty360.com — https://bit.ly/3E4MR5k