Wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and other parts of Los Angeles this month caused about $350 million worth of damage or destruction to public infrastructure, including streetlights, recreation centers and a destroyed library, according to a city report. .
Initial cost estimates, which surveyed damage during the first four days of the fire, were presented to City Council on Wednesday as part of a larger discussion about the emergency’s impact on the city’s budget.
City Administrator Matt Szabo told City Council members that his office will provide initial cost estimates to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of the process to secure compensation for all or part of the fire and wind damage. He said he had submitted it. His office relies heavily on cost estimates from city departments and will work to refine the numbers in the coming weeks.
“These are early estimates,” he told Congress. “They’ll probably grow up.”
Szabo’s seven-page memo does not examine public infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed by the Eaton Fire, which blazed in the suburban Los Angeles communities of Altadena and Pasadena. It also excluded public buildings managed by the Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles County and other non-city agencies.
The ruins of Palisades Elementary Charter School in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 8.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Most of the damage to Los Angeles’ infrastructure was caused by the Palisades Fire, which destroyed more than 6,600 structures and damaged 890 buildings, many in the Pacific Palisades.
According to the report, the Ministry of Water and Power suffered nearly $76 million in damage, mainly to the electricity distribution system. Sanitation infrastructure, including nearly a dozen pumping stations, sustained damage totaling nearly $48 million. Pacific Palisades Public Library losses are estimated at $55 million.
FEMA typically helps local governments recover from disasters by reimbursing them for 75% of the damage, according to the city’s financial analyst. In the final days of the Biden administration, federal officials agreed to reimburse the city at a 100% rate for debris removal and emergency response to wildfires and related storms, even though that work was declared a state of emergency for the city. Only if done within 180 days of the occurrence. declaration.
In addition to the damaged infrastructure, the city estimates about $24 million in emergency response costs for the first 10 days of the wildfire, the bulk of which is spent on fire and police operations.
It’s unclear whether FEMA’s approach to the city’s steadily increasing emergency spending will change under the Trump administration. President Trump on Monday issued an executive order directing federal officials to prevent “sanctuary” jurisdictions that “attempt to interfere” with immigration enforcement from receiving federal funds.
An aide to Hugo Sotomartínez, one of the council members who proposed the city’s sanctuary law, said the city would not lose federal funds from such an order because the sanctuary law “does not interfere” with federal law enforcement. said. “Rather, it is to ensure that city resources and personnel are not used to cooperate with immigration authorities,” the aide said.
Szabo said his office would like to avoid tapping into the city’s emergency reserves as much as possible and instead borrow money from other funds until federal funds arrive. This strategy was adopted by the city during the pandemic emergency, when city workers provided COVID-19 testing and many other critical services.
Los Angeles city officials were facing budget pressures long before the fires. The city’s emergency reserves have fallen to $320 million, about 4% of the city’s general fund budget, which goes toward basic services like police patrols and emergency response. The city’s budget policy calls for keeping that fund at 5%.
Also Wednesday, the council approved the creation of a task force on storm and wildfire recovery to oversee rebuilding efforts and the allocation of state and federal aid.
Councilmember Tracy Park, who represents Pacific Palisades, said the committee will focus not only on reconstruction but also on “restoring public confidence in the city’s emergency and disaster response system.”
“That’s why we will be bringing these meetings into affected communities to make it easier and more convenient for residents to participate and have their voices heard,” she said.
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