Another round of fire-provoking Santa Ana winds are anticipated to sweep across the Los Angeles basin next week, carrying new peril as the area continues to assess the damage of the wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities 10 days ago.
“We’re looking at more Santa Ana winds … and high fire danger. It could be a prolonged event next week,” said Alex Tardy, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in San Diego. “The bottom line: we’re in uncharted territory this deep into the winter, or rainy season,” in having barely any rain, he added.
The return of fire weather is expected on Monday after a calm weekend and could persist through Thursday. The region has not had significant rainfall since early May with no single day producing a 10th of an inch of rain or more for 257 days.
The new fire weather warning comes as authorities assess that more than 12,000 homes and structures were destroyed in the Palisades, Eaton and Altadena fires that killed at least 27 people.
As of Saturday morning, the Palisades fire, which has burned 23,713 acres, was 43% contained as of Saturday morning, according to Cal Fire. The Eaton fire, which has charred 14,117 acres, is 73% contained.
Some mandatory evacuation zones were opened to residents only and the LA country sheriff’s office issued detailed guidelines on Friday for the “repopulation” of selected communities affected by the Palisades fire.
Donald Trump, who will be sworn into office on Monday, has said his first official trip as president will be to southern California to tour the devastated areas. His visit comes amid a fierce political dispute with Republicans blaming California’s Democratic leaders for their response to the blazes.
Republicans in Congress have embraced Trump’s false claim that the California governor, Gavin Newsom, was to blame for the fires for supposedly mismanaging California’s water reserves. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told NPR that conditions should be placed on federal disaster aid because, he claimed, California’s leadership had made “stupid decisions in mismanagement” of wildfire mitigation.
Trump’s planned visit, first reported by NewsNation, comes as the California Fair Plan Association, the state’s property insurer that covers houses when commercial market home insurance is not available, could be heading for crisis.
Estimated losses for the damage from the fires runs from $150bn to $200bn, but the Fair Plan Association announced on Friday that it has just $377m in reserves and $5.78bn worth of reinsurance. The insurer offers basic insurance to rebuild after a fire, as well as coverage for personal property and expenses, to a limit of $3m.
The Fair Plan Association said that it has insured 22% of the structures within the Palisades fire, giving it a potential loss exposure of more than $4bn, and 12% of the structures in the Eaton fire, with a potential exposure of $775m.
“The LA wildfires are on track to be the costliest natural disaster in California in modern times,” former state insurance commissioner Dave Jones told the LA Times.
“And as the climate crisis worsens, the Fair Plan faces extraordinary financial challenges with covering the risks private insurers are declining to cover because of climate change.”
