Budgeting for Disaster
On the morning of January 7, 2025, one of the most destructive and expensive fires in California’s history started in the Pacific Palisades, a Los Angeles neighborhood tucked between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It burned for 24 days. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Palisades fire destroyed 23,000 acres and more than 6,800 structures, killing 12 people. The estimated cost of the conflagration, along with the Eaton fire that burned in the Los Angeles area at the same time, was $65 billion. And the year had just begun.
Publication Date: February 2026
