As raging wildfires continue to ravage Southern California, total estimated economic losses have soared to more than $250 billion, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
Initial estimates from AccuWeather and J.P. Morgan put damage in the $50 billion range, but as the fire spread to neighborhoods in Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu, the projected damage quickly rose to more than three times that amount. It swelled up.
Over the past two days, hundreds of exhausted firefighters have been battling multiple blazes in the foothills around Los Angeles and Ventura counties. They include a large fire near Castaic, an early morning fire in Sepulveda Pass that threatened the bustling communities of Brentwood and Bel Air, and another that entered farmland in Ventura County on Thursday morning. .
The latest estimates from weather forecasting service AccuWeather put the total expected damage and economic losses at between $250 billion and $275 billion. This includes the cost of damages, loss of life, medical care, business interruption, and other economic impacts.
“These fast-moving wind infernos sparked one of the costliest wildfire disasters in modern U.S. history,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said in a statement. “Hurricane-force winds drove flames into an area packed with multi-million dollar homes. The devastation left behind is heartbreaking and the economic toll is staggering.”
Fires have already burned thousands of acres in and around Los Angeles, leaving more than 150,000 people displaced or homeless and more than 15,000 structures damaged or destroyed. . The number of confirmed deaths was 28.
The Palisades Fire, which ravaged areas from Santa Monica to Malibu, razed some of the country’s most expensive real estate, with a median home price of more than $2 million. Porter said this could be the worst wildfire in California’s modern history, given the number of buildings destroyed and the economic loss.
Porter said the economic cost estimates exceed damage and economic loss figures for the entire 2020 wildfire season, which was a very active wildfire season in the United States.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the costliest natural disaster ever in the United States, with an estimated cost of $200 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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