As fires continue to rage across Southern California and the scope of catastrophic damage, loss of life, business disruptions and other economic impacts becomes clearer, AccuWeather has updated and increased its preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss to between $250 billion and $275 billion, AzVision.az reports citing AccuWeather.
“These fast-moving, wind-driven infernos have created one of the costliest wildfire disasters in modern US history,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said. “Hurricane-force winds sent flames ripping through neighborhoods filled with multi-million-dollar homes. The devastation left behind is heartbreaking, and the economic toll is staggering."
The worst of the fires are burning in an area from Santa Monica to Malibu, impacting some of the most expensive real estate in the country, with median home values over $2 million. Should a large number of additional structures be burned in the coming days, it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss,” Porter added.
To put the magnitude of loss into context, this latest damage and economic estimate for the fires burning in Southern California surpasses the damage and economic loss numbers for the entire 2020 wildfire season, which was a very active US wildfire season, Porter noted. The damage and economic loss in Los Angeles is far higher than the deadly Maui wildfires in 2023, which were $13 billion to $16 billion and have also surpassed the $225 to $250 billion estimate for damages and economic loss after 2024's Hurricane Helene.
AccuWeather’s estimate also accounts for lost wages and housing displacement for thousands of people across Southern California whose jobs have been temporarily impacted, which may ultimately result in large numbers of furloughs, layoffs or businesses shutting down and jobs being eliminated.
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