California Wildfire Damages and Economic Loss Estimated at Over $50 Billion
The devastating California wildfires still burning two days later will have costly damages for the city, state and its residents.
One preliminary estimate from AccuWeather, a weather forecasting site, calculated that the total damage and economic loss from the fires across L.A. County could cost $52-$57 billion.
“This is already one of the worst wildfires in California history. Should a large number of additional structures be burned in the coming days, it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said in a press release.
Several fires have sparked up in the city since Tuesday, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds, causing the most destruction to homes in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, where the median home value is over $2 million. Residents are aware of the risk of fires when living in the area, but this one, mapped at 17,234 acres as of Thursday afternoon, is on its way to becoming the largest and must destructive in California history.
Experts at J.P. Morgan doubled their expectations of economic losses from Wednesday, saying Thursday they would be closer to $50 billion, according to the L.A. Times.
AccuWeather incorporated several methods to evaluate the impacts of the windstorm and wildfires and assess both insured and uninsured losses. The weather forecasting company’s estimate accounts for “damage to property, job and wage losses, crops, infrastructure damage, interruption of the supply chain, auxiliary business losses and flight delays or cancellations” and takes into account cost of evacuations, relocations, emergency management, and government expenses for cleanup operations.
State Farm California dropped about 1,600 insurance policies in Pacific Palisades in July 2024, according to a statement to CBS from Department of Insurance spokesman Michael Soller, and more policies have been dropped in surrounding L.A. communities. Thousands of structures within those zipcodes have since been burned down, including schools, businesses and residences.
More to come…
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