A Los Angeles firestorm went from a warning to out-of-control fires spreading across 4,500 acres, destroying hundreds of buildings and threatening tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Tens of billions of dollar up in smoke in less than 24 hour delivering yet another clear signal that climate change has made America uninsurable.
Bloomberg summarized the situation like this:
“The wildfires terrorizing Los Angeles this week have been like something out of a movie: vast, fast-moving, unpredictable, merciless. Their scope and nature have surprised even fire-jaded California. They are also evidence of the sort of consequences that can be expected as the planet continues to heat up, consequences for which traditional risk-management tools — like, say, home insurance — are increasingly obsolete.”
No one should be surprised at this point. California is in the front lines for wildfire risk and the affected area is known to be vulnerable. Bloomberg goes on to point out insurers were already abandoning the Palisades.
The neighborhoods in the path of the Palisades and other fires burning this week have been among some of the hardest-hit by insurer defections in recent years. The 90272 ZIP code of Pacific Palisades experienced 1,930 policy non-renewals between 2019 and 2024, according to a San Francisco Chronicle tally, or 28 out of every 100 policies.
As unsurprising as any of this week’s events have been, don’t pretend you don’t know climate disasters and insurance cancelations are coming for everyone else.