Washington, United States:

As fire-wrecked Los Angeles braces for a visit by President Donald Trump, many are worrying the mercurial Republican will yank the federal support the city needs to get back on its feet.

Trump is due in the shell-shocked city for a few hours on Friday afternoon, where he will be able to see for himself the devastation wrought by the deadly fires — damage whose repair will cost billions of dollars.

Former president Joe Biden was quick to pledge whatever was needed to deal with the disaster in the waning days of his administration.

But almost as soon as the fires erupted, Trump began sticking the boot in, lashing out at California Governor Gavin Newsom, and resurrecting an earlier hobbyhorse about water supplies.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump said this week, emphasizing his false belief that there is a valve in northern California that can be turned to release billions of gallons (liters) of water in the rain-starved state.

Funding needed

Threats to withhold federal funds are worrisome to some of those who lost everything in the fires.

“I just can’t fathom that the government is going to let so many people (suffer)… that they’re not going to help them,” Sebastian Harrison told AFP.

This 59-year-old former actor lost his Malibu home in the blaze. He was not insured, unable to afford premiums that topped $40,000 a year.

Without government money, getting his life back on track might prove almost impossible, he fears.

In Altadena, a modest city further inland, as in the upscale Pacific Palisades, thousands of ruined buildings need to be cleared.

Federal cash granted by Biden for 180 days is intended to cover this.

But local authorities fret the White House’s new inhabitant might not honor that check.

“Everybody’s rushing to make sure the funds get here before Trump gets in office,” a local official told AFP last week, on condition of anonymity.

But, the person said, the demography of the disaster — which affected some very wealthy people as well as those of more modest means — gives hope that Trump won’t be able to abandon the region.

“Trump may think of Altadena as a bunch of low-life Democrats, but Pacific Palisades is a different story,” the source said.

“That’s the first zip code where he and other Republicans go to when they want to raise money in Los Angeles.”

“Principle of unity”

Pacific Palisades and the parts of Malibu it abuts are considerably less left-leaning than other parts of Los Angeles.

While the area has its share of Hollywood liberals, it also has property developers, businesspeople and other Republicans.

Among those who lost their homes was Mel Gibson, who Trump has just appointed to an ill-defined role as ambassador to Hollywood.

The new president’s visit to Los Angeles looks set to include a meeting with the state’s governor — whom Trump delights in calling Gavin “Newscum.”

There is no love lost between the two men, but Newsom has taken a more conciliatory approach in recent weeks.

“Historically, federal disaster aid has been provided without conditions, recognizing that political calculations or regional divides should not encumber relief efforts,” he wrote in a letter last week to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“This principle of unity is at the heart of our nation’s resilience.”

But if the federal government cannot be cajoled into stumping up the funds needed for recovery and reconstruction, California says it is prepared to use the courts.

The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said he found it “disheartening” that Trump and his allies were seeking to politicize tragedy.

“We have every expectation that federal action will be taken to support California and the hardworking Californians whose lives and livelihoods are at risk,” he told AFP.

“We have been preparing for the Trump administration for months, and we will not hesitate to act if we believe the president is violating the law.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Los Angeles:

‘Wicked’ fame music producer Greg Wells is one of many celebrities who lost their homes in California wildfires.

As per Variety, he not only lost his family home but his state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos mixing room and studio also were destroyed in Pacific Palisades.

For Wells, it happened just as he was preparing to resume work on “Wicked: For Good.”

Speaking with Variety, Wells said, “You know, I think life is supposed to be hard. I’m not sure it’s supposed to be quite this hard. But it could be so, so, so much worse than it is. I know a number of people have died, but the people immediately close to me and my family, we’re all healthy and safe — and kind of depressed and bewildered.”

“I had such a collection of incredible recording equipment, like a custom-made, 48-channel analog console made by Paul Wolff, who used to own API, and 17 speakers in that room, six in the ceiling, three on each wall, two on the rear wall, four huge subwoofers up front — just a magical, magical room. But I just have to remind myself, it’s really down to the people and to the ideas, and none of that stuff makes a song better. So I’m not gonna let it define me,” he added.

Recently, Paris Hilton shared on Instagram that her Malibu home was destroyed while she watched the news about the wildfires.

“To know so many are waking up today without the place they called home is truly heartbreaking,” she wrote. Hilton’s mid-century beach house, purchased in 2021 for over USD 8 million, was the site where her son, Phoenix, “took his first steps.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The devastating Los Angeles wildfires are poised to become one of the costliest natural disasters in US history, with estimated losses already surpassing $135 billion. According to a preliminary estimate by private forecaster AccuWeather, the total losses could reach as high as $150 billion, making it one of the most expensive wildfires the country has ever seen, BBC has reported.

“These fast-moving, wind-driven infernos have created one of the costliest wildfire disasters in modern US history,” said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter. The sheer scale of the destruction is staggering, with over 5,300 structures destroyed by the Palisades blaze and more than 5,000 structures destroyed by the Eaton Fire.

The insurance industry is bracing for a significant hit, with analysts from firms such as Morningstar and JP Morgan forecasting insured losses of over $8 billion. This could exacerbate the existing challenges faced by the industry, which has been struggling to cope with the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters. As the full extent of the damage becomes clear, insurers will be forced to reevaluate their risk assessments and pricing strategies, potentially leading to higher premiums and reduced coverage options for homeowners in high-risk areas.

As a result, many people are turning to state government-backed insurance plans, which are often more expensive and offer less protection. In California, the number of policies offered through the state’s Fair plan has more than doubled since 2020, from around 200,000 to over 450,000 in September last year. Areas hit by the fires have seen some of the highest take-up rates, according to data from the program.

The long-term effects of the wildfires will be significant, with potential damage to property values, strain on public finances, and impacts on health and tourism. Denise Rappmund, a senior analyst at Moody’s Ratings, warned that the fires would have “widespread, negative impacts for the state’s broader insurance market.” She added that “increased recovery costs will likely drive up premiums and may reduce property insurance availability.”

The 2018 Camp fire in northern California currently holds the record for the highest insured costs, at around $12.5 billion. However, the Los Angeles wildfires are likely to surpass this total, given the high property values in the affected areas. Aon, a leading insurance company, has already indicated that this disaster is likely to rank among the top five costliest wildfires in US history.

However, the US and California government estimates on the damage are yet to be announced.
 

Months before the ongoing wildfires ravaged through Southern California, American podcaster Joe Rogan had made ominous predictions about the same. In a July 2024 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan discussed the wildfire threat with comedian Sam Morril. On the podcast, he recalled his conversation with a firefighter who predicted a catastrophic scenario for the region.

“One day, it’s going to be the right wind and fire is going to start in the right place and it’s going to burn through LA all the way to the ocean,” Rogan recounted the firefighter telling him.

In the clip, Rogan, wearing a Los Angeles Fire Department T-shirt, described how the firefighter highlighted the terrifying scale and speed at which a wildfire could spread. “These fires are so big, you’re talking about thousands of acres burning simultaneously with 40 mph (64 kmph) winds. Once it happens, it’s so spread out that there’s nothing they can do,” Rogan said.

the California fires were perfectly predicted with insane accuracy by a firefighter that spoke to Joe Rogan pic.twitter.com/zuM8gmvJRX

— ryan ???? (@scubaryan_) January 9, 2025

According to The New York Post, Joe Rogan has frequently echoed his concerns about Los Angeles’ vulnerability to wildfires during various episodes of his podcast.

In 2018, while Rogan was still residing in Bell Canyon, Ventura County, he hosted English mentalist Derren Brown on The Joe Rogan Experience. Wildfires were already raging in the area, and Brown mentioned at the start of the interview that he was lucky to have made it despite the ongoing fires. Rogan responded by recounting the same warning from the firefighter, describing how the “right wind” could drive a fire from the city all the way to the ocean.

A year later, in 2019, Rogan brought up the topic again while speaking with journalist David Wallace-Wells. During their discussion on climate change, they touched on predictions that California’s wildfires could become “64 times worse by the end of the century.”

Rogan’s warning resurfaced as wildfires, especially the Palisades Fire in the west and the Eaton Fire in the east, continued to rage, forcing mass evacuations and destroying homes across Los Angeles County.

As reported by CNN, the wildfires have claimed the lives of at least 10 people. But authorities caution that the true extent of casualties may not be known until investigators safely enter the affected neighbourhoods. The fires have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, with evacuation orders continuing to impact large parts of the region.