150 BILLION to rebuild LA ~ where's the money going to come from

[LaurieFairyCake]

That's HUGE amounts right?

I can't even conceive how much money that is is it more than our gdp?

Insurance liability is estimated at about $10 billion (only) so most costs/losses are not insured losses.

Biden has announced the federal government will pick up the tab for other losses so it looks like the tax payers of the USA are paying.

That's not quite true is it?

abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/biden-raises-federal-funding-initial-los-angeles-fire/story?id=117516448

It's for the first 180 days of disaster response - first responder salaries, shelters, etc.

He has said he hopes congress will do the right thing and help people who need it.

From what I can tell it’s a mess there. Not everyone was insured. I’m not sure much progress has been made.

Americans seem to love building power lines above ground in dry and windy areas. It will cost a lot to put electrics underground and no one wants to pay.

you could stop burning poisonous gases tomorrow and force the transition to 100% renewables and thereby mitigate some of the future environment effects.

Whilst at the same time accounting for the changing climate.

In any event, to paraphrase Biden it's a bigly sum that the taxpayers/federal government are going to pay for.
The insurance industry is on the hook for a relatively small sum / proportion of the total losses

@Simplegazette the federal costs will be the initial clean up (as they would be with any disaster like this).

I'm sure you're right. The point I'd like to make is that contrary to many comments on this thread I don't think the insurance industry is going to cover even a small proportion of the losses that are going to be incurred; it's not a magic bullet, especially in this catastrophe.

They are saying that insurance companies won't be able to afford it - that some insurance companies will go bust because of this.

@Simplegazette and that's what the government is there for. California is one of the states that pays a lot more tax than it uses, so it's likely just Californian taxpayers that will pay

I read you're not going to be able to get a builder in LA for 10 years anyway so even if you have insurance you might not get a house built for ages.

I refer you to my point about immigration ...

Sounds like they should have adopted Solvency II. Shame it was an EU initiative and so evil and socialist.

Well very true. Maybe Mexicans will suddenly be welcomed with open arms!

Wood is perfectly appropriate in an area prone to earthquakes.

Stripping vegetation leads to mudslides when rains come.

It may be time to abandon the area.

The area doesn't need abandoning.

Multiple people have had their homes saved by low concrete walls.

They're also investigating arson in many areas, so it may not even be natural caused.

Firstly - i'm just glad that the fatalities so far are very low. Houses can be rebuilt, people can't. It is going to be very very hard for a lot of people who lost their houses. I live very near to the area (almost had to evacuate) and know several who lost everything. They aren't celebrities.

It will be paid for by a mixture of insurance, reinsurance and state and federal funding.

Homeowners insurance will cover the house posessions up to insured limits. The actual building though needs to have fire insurance to be covered, and this is where it gets tricky. A lot of the palisades backs up to the forest line and the insurance companies won't cover it. The only way to get insurance in those areas is through a federally covered scheme which you have to jump through hoops for and is very costly. A non zero number of people therefore will not have fire insurance. For the ones who by some luck have an actual insurance company rather than the government scheme, the insurance company is required to pay out 1/3 of the insured value of the house immediately if requested, and then the rest will go through adjusters etc. The other issue is that there is a massive shortage of real estate in LA in general, so with so many displaced, there literally are not going to be available houses for them to move into. Also getting workers to build/work on construction here is like gold dust. I think it is going to be a very lengthy process to get people back into their houses.

Yes - there are some very rich people in the Palisades area. Also, there are some very normal people in that area. My child's daycare worker has lost their house and I doubt they are loaded if she is working for near minimum wage in a daycare center. It is a truly horrific tragedy, and it's still going.

Did anyone see Donald Trump with a violin ?

@mathanxiety I don't know how true this is but I have a vague memory of reading some history that when the first settlers came to the area there were very few Native Americans living there and essentially the settlers were pretty much told "you really don't want to live there" by the Native communities - who didn't live there for a reason.
Earthquakes. Desert. Hills.
Not a sensible place to live.
(again I have no idea if that's true)

Elon Musk supposedly worth £400 billion. He could fund it but would probably want to own at lot of California in return

or will they move elsewhere as was suggested earlier this morning, cannot remember by whom, will they leave LA and possibly California for a more secure State and build a new Jerusalem/Hollywood on solid ground

It’s a lot but California has a larger GDP than the U.K.. and Apple on its own has a trillion turnover or something ridiculous … It’s rich! Although whether they will want to pay to rebuild - who knows x

Low concrete walls aren't going to save your home from earthquakes. It appears that the next big one is long overdue and it is only a matter of time.

What with the continued fire risk in future years; the destruction of all the infrastructure in the area - not just homes but businesses, schools & shops etc as well. Add to that the earthquake threat, will people want to invest in rebuilding? I'm not entirely sure they will.

Lots of people had their insurance cancelled. However, some will be able to afford to rebuild as they still own the land. I’m sure the like of Paris Hilton etc can dig into her $300 million net worth to rebuild. It’s an awful situation which no one can imagine. It’s the poorer uninsured people I feel most sorry for. Horrendous situation regardless.

Maybe they are already there

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/17/tech-billionaire-new-city-plan-california-forever-san-francisco

Those who are saying (in so many words) they are all rich they can afford to rebuild probably have no concept of the areas devastated. If you superimpose the area of just one of the fires into a scale map of London, most of the West of the city would be levelled. This has taken out whole towns including both the Malibu mansions and the middle class family neighbourhoods, and all the businesses and facilities you’d expect in those kinds of areas