By Dr. Jeff Masters23 January 2019 (Weather Underground) – Earth was besieged by 39 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2018, the fourth-highest inflation-adjusted number of billion-dollar weather events on record, said insurance broker Aon (formerly called Aon Benfield) in their annual report issued 22 January 2019. Only 2011, with 44 billion-dollar weather disasters, and 2010 and […]
By Petra Löw8 January 2019 (Munich Re) – When compared with the record losses of the previous year from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the indications at the start of 2018 were that it would be a more moderate year. However, the second half of the year saw an accumulation of billion-dollar losses from floods, […]
By Sammy Roth 15 January 2019 (Los Angeles Times) – Climate change helped fuel the deadly fires that prompted California’s largest power company to announce Monday that it would file for bankruptcy in the face of $30 billion in potential liabilities. In a grim twist, the bankruptcy of PG&E Corp. could now slow California’s efforts […]
By Doyle Rice8 January 2019 (USA TODAY) – Racking up an overall damage cost of $16.5 billion, the devastating and deadly Camp Fire that ravaged California in November was the world’s costliest natural disaster in 2018. The data come from a report issued Tuesday by Munich Re, a reinsurance firm. In second and third place […]
By Laura Newberry7 January 2019 (Los Angeles Times) – The long road to recovery in the town of Paradise starts with removing millions of tons of charred rubble left in the Camp fire’s wake. But the question remains: Where will it all go? Disaster officials are scrambling to secure a place to sort and process […]
By David Jackson 9 January 2019 WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) – President Donald Trump said in a Wednesday tweet that he is cutting off federal money to fight California wildfires, claiming the money is being wasted. “Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forrest fires that, with proper Forrest Management, would never […]
By Eric Westervelt4 January 2019 (NPR) – Facing staggering liability costs for its potential culpability in a series of deadly wildfires, the parent company of California’s largest utility is exploring whether to sell off a major part of the company, NPR has learned. Internally, Pacific Gas & Electric has dubbed this strategy “Project Falcon.” Under […]
By Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano 20 December 2018 PARADISE, California (The Guardian) – William Goggia awoke to a poisonous orange atmosphere so thick with smoke he couldn’t see the sun.It was 8am on Thursday 8 November. He heard the piercing metallic clang of propane tanks exploding in the distance. His sister, who lived […]
By Holly Yan and Chris Boyette 4 December 2018 (CNN) – California’s Camp Fire didn’t just kill dozens of people and destroy thousands of homes. It also left an insurance company in financial ruins, unable to pay millions of dollars to policyholders.A state judge ruled that Merced Property & Casualty Co. can’t meet its obligations […]
19 November 2018 (Desdemona Despair) – In August 2018, it was “environmental terrorist groups” causing California’s forest fires. Before that, it was water regulations. Now, California just needs to rake its forests and manage them like Finland.Anything to deny the obvious: global warming is causing California’s megafires.Throughout 2018, the Trump administration has undertaken a Stalinist […]
