LOS ANGELES (AP) — The wildfires that broke out in Los Angeles County this week are still raging but are already expected to be one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
The devastating fires have killed and burned at least eleven people more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, destroying entire neighborhoods where multimillion-dollar properties once stood.
While it’s too early to accurately calculate the financial toll, the losses so far make the wildfires likely the costliest on record in the U.S., according to several estimates.
A preliminary estimate from AccuWeather puts damage and economic losses to date at between $135 billion and $150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore through six southeastern states last fall, at $225 billion to $250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in modern California history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in modern U.S. history, due to the fires occurring in the densely populated areas surrounding Los Angeles with some of the most highly valued real estate in the country. country.” said Jonathan Porter, the private company’s chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather takes into account a wide range of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, wage losses and supply chain disruptions.
David McNew via Getty Images
Insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires are likely to be the costliest in U.S. history, though it did not provide an estimate. Aon ranks a 2018 wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, as the costliest in U.S. history to date, at $12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The camp fire killed 85 people and destroyed approximately 11,000 homes.
The wildfires in LA County, those were fueled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and extreme drought, remained largely unattended on Saturday. That means the ultimate number of losses from the fires will likely increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this in perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could be nearly 4% of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather’s Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody’s also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in U.S. history, especially as they have swept through densely populated areas with pricier properties.
While the state is no stranger to large wildfires, they are generally concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That has led to less destruction per acre and damage to lower-priced homes, Moody’s noted.
That’s far from the case this time, with one of the largest fires destroying thousands of properties in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Countless celebrities have already lost homes to the fires.
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“The size and intensity of the fires, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of human costs and economic toll,” Moody’s analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of wildfire damage.
It may take several months before a concrete overview of the financial losses resulting from the forest fires will be possible.
“We are in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.