Final Evacuation Order Finally Lifted Almost 6 Months after Palisades Wildfire Disaster
Meanwhile, State Farm is being sued by wildfire victims and a new report links Mayor Karen Bass to Chinese Intel.
The last time we checked on the Pacific Palisades recovery from the devastating wildfire in January, only 68 building permits had been issued for the rebuilding of 6800 structures that were damaged or destroyed.
Now comes news that the final evacuation order for the Pacific Palisades was officially lifted nearly six months after the devastating fire, which burned over 23,000 acres in Southern California. The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) made the announcement over the weekend, marking the end of all remaining restrictions in the fire-affected zones.
A portion of the coastal Los Angeles neighborhood had remained under an evacuation order because of dangerous downed wires, potentially explosive lithium-ion batteries and toxic wildfire debris, said Lyndsey Lantz, a spokesperson for the Fire Department.
The Army Corps of Engineers, the lead agency overseeing wildfire cleanup, has overseen federal contractors in clearing wreckage away from more than 3,200 properties, alleviating some of those worries.
“Our concern has decreased since much of the debris has been removed,” Lantz said.
Only residents and contractors had previously been able to return to the portion of Pacific Palisades that remained under the evacuation order. Authorities had established vehicle checkpoints, in part, to keep the public away from these lingering hazards.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall that because of the many regulatory and policy challenges in the state, insurance companies began cutting home and apartment policies last year. In part, it is because our “progressive” state regulators tend to view insurance companies as villains.
Well, the insurance firms now have even more incentive to flee the state, as California’s insurance regulator, the California Department of Insurance (CDI), is currently conducting a formal investigation (specifically a Market Conduct Examination) into State Farm’s handling of insurance claims related to the Palisades and Eaton wildfires and the company is being sued.
The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles on Monday, alleges that State Farm General — the California home insurer that is part of the larger State Farm Group based in Bloomington, Ill. — took advantage of homeowner’s lack of knowledge about rebuilding costs and set projected replacement costs far lower than the actual costs, leaving fire victims without enough money to replace or rebuild their homes.
State Farm, California’s largest home insurer, has engaged in a “multi-faceted illegal scheme” that is designed to “reap enormous illicit profits by deceptively misleading over a million homeowners in California,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, breach of contract and several other causes of action, and seeks compensatory and punitive damages and reform of State Farm’s policies.
Representatives for State Farm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Los Angeles Times…likely because they were too busy packing their offices.
There were many poor decisions that led to the conditions that allowed the wildfire to get out of control, destroying a large swath of one of America’s great cities. One of the most significant sources of failure is Mayor Karen Bass, who enacted budget cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department, reducing its funding by approximately $17.5 million.
These cuts came amid warnings about the city’s deteriorating finances and were implemented shortly after awarding city employees substantial pay raises and benefits. Critics argue that these cuts left the city vulnerable during the devastating wildfires, as resources were stretched thin and response times were impacted.
Her contributions to this disaster were such that Michel Valentine, former U.S. attorney, accused her of ‘criminal negligence“.
“In my opinion, as a former prosecutor, this verges on criminal negligence. I say it’s just wrong,” Valentine said in an interview Tuesday on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
“A lot of people are at fault,” he continued. “I think Mayor Bass bears the ultimate responsibility for this failure, and I think she should be held accountable. There’s no way that that I could trust her again as my mayor in light of this tragedy. There’s no way.”
Given her role in the wildfire disaster, and her ongoing attacks on President Donald Trump and his moves to deport illegal immigrants while protecting federal property, I find the Daily Caller’s recent article linking Bass to Chinese Intel…fascinating.
An official in Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ administration is the son of a Chinatown powerbroker and Democratic donor who has praised the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and works with foreign intelligence agencies, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.
Adam Ma has held multiple positions in Bass’ office, his LinkedIn profile states, and now serves as both the city’s liaison for Asian-Americans and director of commission appointments, according to the Los Angeles government website.
His father, who raised tens of thousands of dollars for Bass’ mayoral campaign, previously lauded the Communist Party for creating a “strong China” and is listed as an official by multiple arms of a Chinese government influence and intelligence service called the United Front Work Department (UFWD).
After all, if you were a foreign entity intent on destroying a major American city, would you do anything different than what Bass did?
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Comments
Bass like Walz is too stupid to be a chinese asset. They both are likely manipulated pawns unaware that they are being manipulated. Progressive LA really deserves her fat black ass. Keep voting dramcrat LA and the rest of your city can burn down or implode too.
I won’t give Walz stupidity as a defense since he’s a well known liar at this point.
They are both stupid yes, but that means both are dumb enough to think they can get away with these kinds of things.
I am confused. My insurer states the rebuild value of my home as the basis for my premium. In the event of a complete burnout, I would get that plus up to 20% more for compliance with updated building standards or building codes.
The rebuild value goes up every year due to rising costs of materials and labor. And so does the premium. The sale value of the property can go up … or down, depending on the market.
“deceptively misleading over a million homeowners in California,” the complaint alleges.”
Did State Farm tell people their property was insured when it was not? Or vice versa?
I suspect this is just leftist lawyers talking out their asses again.
State Farm and Allstate are two firms with whom I will not do business.
I just fired Allstate.
I wasn’t justifying it. Just stating depressing reality.
Face it, Cali, mansions will not be rebuilt. Cali politicians got their early Christmas wish – the removal from LA of tens of thousands of beautiful, expensive houses. They will not allow them to just go back up.
The only housing that will be allowed will be one nice house, surrounded by dozens of dense apartments for homeless, addicts, prisoners on early release, and illegal aliens. This will be how the Palisades are rebuilt,
Malibu beach will not be rebuilt, at all. Nothing. No housing on the beach. But bums in dirty, broken-down vans and campers will be allowed to live on the road next to the beach, effectively being given the beach property.
LA politicians wanted to try and force LA to change in this way for so many years … and now they got the fire to do it for them. And, on top of all that, no one even lost their job over the devastation and ineptitude and criminal negligence (at best) and most of them will probably be re-elected or just elected to different offices in the next elections.
Amazing. They’re not embarrassed, in any way, by all the pain, misery, death, and destruction they caused … not even a little tiny bit. And they’re not being held liable for any of it, either. Just crazy.
If you want to make an E. coli omelette, you have to break some rotten eggs.
Shortly after the fire and in light of some of Bass’s and Newsome’s statements many predicted few homes being rebuilt with the government throwing up so many barriers that people would give up and leave. The government would seize the beachfront for public use then put in mixed housing with a large number of Section 8 and multi unit housing for “equity”. Looks like it’s right on track.
The insurance companies are not at fault. Home sale prices in California have skyrocketed to such an extent that they do the best they can to keep up but raising everyone’s premiums every 6 months is not an option and they would have been sued if they tried. Trying to force companies to raise coverage over and over while keeping the premiums the same is a non starter. Companies need to make money to stay in business. I don’t think this will end until there are no insurance companies left in the state and then everyone will point fingers stunned it happened.
State Farm has not offered guaranteed replacement cost in California since 1997. It is quite clear about this. The cheapskates who wanted to underinsure their seven figure homes eschewed Chubb and other insurers who would have offered this coverage at a higher price. These crybabies can drown in their own tears.
During a joint public statement with President Trump, Karen Bass stated the city wanted to ensure rebuilding was done “safely”. Trump said he felt people wanted to get in, clean up their properties, and rebuild as soon as possible and that the city should remove any barriers that impede that action. Bass demurred giving any particulars except to repeat the city wanted rebuilding but it had to be done “safely”.
I would wager those of us who understand code recognized the death of private property in California.
I am a licensed insurance producer and agency owner (actually I just sold my book of business, but still close to the action).
State Farm did nothing wrong. It is up to you to know the value of your stuff and to make sure your coverage amounts reflect that. If you have a lot worth 100k and a home that cost 1.5M to build and a pole barn that’s 100k, you know damn well what amount you need to carry. You also need to know the difference between Actual Cash Value and Replacement Cost for your personal property.
Homeowners were more than happy to undervalue the rebuild cost of their houses to have a lower premium. I have a decent amount of cash and I’m personally happy to under insure my own stuff and go with high deductibles…. this is known as “self insuring” I had a tree fall on my house right before I sold it. I had to eat that deductible… and that hurt, but I knew the game.
In many areas State Farm would actually have the right to REALLY stick it to homeowners who did not insure up to at least 80-85% of the rebuild cost, though this is more common on commerial property.
I have been told by an insider in California that most of these claims have not even made it through the pipeline yet. The industry is in fact bankrupt (for CA), it’s just that the claims process has really been slowing down the reality.
The kicker here is that if the insurance amounts won’t cover the mortgages, this is going to result in a lot of bankruptcies AND some banks may be going into the red too (Party like it’s 2009!!!). Lenders are supposed to require a rebuild estimate with the insurance coverage. That’s up to the home owner. An insurance agent IS NOT a construction estimator. Although they do plug it into a bit of software that will make the estimate, that number can be fudged lower to win on premium. Like I said, it’s up to the homeowner if they want to play that game. They play stupid, but they are the ones who will be burned (the pun works there).
this is all lefty all the time
government run is not pro america
military
courts
treasury
thats it
do those jobs correctly and america will thrive
maga
come on trump stick with the plan!!!
Why didn’t the people living along the beach have hoses from the ocean to their homes and pumps to spay water? Should have been inexpensive and effective.
“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. — Liz Warren
Now, the landowners have until the end of the month to clear their land or face liens from the ever caring bureaucrats of Mayor Bass’ city.
3 years from now property owners will still be living in trailers in their driveways. While homeless junkies will be squatting on abandoned lots. Dems will still have super majority.