U.S. Disaster Recovery System Faces Potential Disruption Due to California Fires
Los Angeles is currently grappling with the devastating effects of two major wildfires, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, which have destroyed thousands of structures and threatened tens of thousands more. As the fires continue to burn, the city and its residents are facing challenges in recovery and funding.
The Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, an important source of community recovery, especially for low- and moderate-income communities, has allocated funds for wildfire compensation to various state and local government agencies responsible for disaster recovery from 2015 to mid-2024. Congress appropriated just over $2 billion for wildfires during this period, with the largest chunk going to the 2018 California Camp Fire ($541 million). However, two wildfires from this period did not receive HUD funding.
FEMA, on the other hand, spent $270 million through its Individuals and Households Program (IHP) on major wildfires from 2015 to mid-2024. Thousands of residents have applied for FEMA assistance for major uninsured losses, but the impact of conspiracy theories or politicized information on the recovery effort is a concern.
The ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles have left a trail of destruction, with more than 10,000 structures already destroyed and an estimated 62,000 structures threatened. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna described some areas of the city as looking 'like a bomb was dropped in them.' The fires have also claimed the lives of ten people.
The disaster recovery system in the United States is most accustomed to responding to major water events, not large-scale fire events. Hurricane-strength fires like the ones currently burning are a step change in our climate reality and will require radically new ways of thinking about mitigation and recovery.
The gridlock in Congress last year caused long delays in CDBG-DR appropriations. On average, it takes 401 days from the beginning of a wildfire incident for Congress to appropriate and HUD to allocate the funds. Unlike FEMA, HUD has no permanent program that Congress can routinely fund, causing funds to take a long time to arrive.
In addition to the challenges posed by the fires themselves, many homeowners in Los Angeles have been dropped from fire insurance policies since 2020. State Farm reportedly dropped approximately 1,600 policies for homes in Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood with a median home price of $3.1 million.
As the fires continue to rage, the focus remains on the speed at which the new Congress provides CDBG-DR funding, the impact of conspiracy theories or politicized information on the recovery effort, and the long-term effects on the city and its residents. The ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles serve as a stark reminder of the urgent need for improved disaster recovery funding and strategies in the face of increasingly frequent and severe wildfires.
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