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U.S. NEWS Thursday 13 december 2018
Insurance claims at $9 billion from California fires

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE The cleanup costs for last
Associated Press month’s fires will far surpass
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) the record expense of $1.3
— Insurance claims from billion the U.S. Army Corp of
last month’s California wild- Engineers spent on debris
fires already are at $9 billion removal in Northern Califor-
and expected to increase, nia in 2017.
the state’s insurance com- California Office of Emer-
missioner announced gency Services Director
Wednesday. Mark Ghilarducci said the
About $7 billion in claims state will manage cleanup
are from the Camp Fire contracts this time. Last
that destroyed the North- year, hundreds of North-
ern California city of Par- ern California homeowners
adise and killed at least complained that contrac-
86 people, making it the tors paid by the ton hauled
deadliest U.S. wildfire in at away too much dirt and
least a century. The rest is damaged unbroken drive-
from the Woolsey and Hill ways, sidewalks and pipes.
fires in Southern California. The state OES spent millions
Collectively, the fires de- repairing that damage.
stroyed or damaged more Ghilarducci said the state
than 20,000 structures, with OES will hire auditors and
the vast majority in and In this Nov. 11, 2018 file photo, a home burned down by a wildfire sits on a hilltop overlooking the monitors to watch over
around Paradise. On Tues- Pacific Ocean in Malibu, Calif. debris removal in hopes of
day, state and federal au- Associated Press cutting down on the num-
thorities estimated it will through Northern Califor- California to start rethinking these decisions.” ber of over-eager contrac-
cost at least $3 billion just to nia’s wine country last year. how and if it builds in fire- Authorities are still deter- tors.
clear debris. Losses from those fires were prone areas. Ken Pimlott, mining what caused the “We learned a great num-
“As the claims get perfect- initially pegged at $3.3 bil- outgoing director of the fire. ber of things,” last year,
ed, as individuals get ac- lion but eventually grew to California Department of Pacific Gas & Electric told Ghilarducci said.
cess to their former homes $10 billion. Forestry and Fire Protection, regulators that a high-volt- He said the U.S. Corps of
and neighborhoods, as While the Camp Fire de- told The Associated Press age power line malfunc- Engineers was asked to
they dialogue with their stroyed about double the this week the state should tioned at the time and spot lead the effort last year
insurance companies number of structures as the consider banning construc- that investigators believe because state resources
and share more informa- 2017 fires, home values in tion in vulnerable areas. the fire started on Nov. 8. were stretched thin after
tion about the scope of Butte County are far low- Jones said local govern- The San Francisco-based responding to more than
their loss, we expect these er than those in Sonoma ments may not be fully utility told the California a dozen wildfires. This year,
numbers to rise,” Insurance County. That’s part of the considering the long-term Public Utilities Commis- he said state officials can
Commissioner Dave Jones reason total claims may impacts of building in ar- sion on Tuesday that sev- manage the cleanup and
said of the $9 billion esti- seem low compared to eas at high risk of fire, floods eral miles away workers costs will be shared among
mate. the 2017 figures, Jones said. and rising sea levels. found a fallen power pole state, federal and local au-
There are more than 28,000 Median home values in “That’s going to be a hard and equipment with bullet thorities.
claims for residential per- Sonoma County are more conversation. Everybody holes. Cleanup is expected to
sonal property, nearly 2,000 than double those in Butte. likes to build new, people A number of fire victims begin in January and take
from commercial property Jones advised home own- obviously want to rebuild have filed lawsuits alleg- about a year to complete.
and 9,400 in auto and other ers to be cautious of “fraud- their communities,” he said. ing that PG&E’s equipment State and federal officials
claims for the fires. sters and scam artists” try- “We’re in a new era where started the fire that de- are currently removing
That’s well above the num- ing to take advantage of these risks are so bad I think stroyed the town of Para- hazardous household ma-
ber of claims filed follow- vulnerable communities. we’ve really got to take a dise and killed at least 86 terials from the damaged
ing a series of fires that tore He also said its time for look at how we’re making people. properties.q

National Enquirer owner admits it buried stories for Trump

By JIM MUSTIAN campaign by paying AMI to train employees on
Associated Press $150,000 to Playboy model federal election law stan-
NEW YORK (AP) — The par- Karen McDougal for the dards and hire a lawyer to
ent company of maga- rights to her story about an consult regarding any fu-
zines including the National alleged affair with Trump. ture payments “to acquire
Enquirer, Us Weekly and In Wednesday’s develop- stories involving individuals
Touch has admitted to en- ment brought fresh atten- running for office.”
gaging in a journalistically tion to “catch-and-kill,” in The Associated Press has
dubious practice known which a publication pays reported that AMI kept a
as “catch-and-kill” in order for exclusive rights to some- safe that stored documents
to help Donald Trump be- one’s story with no inten- on hush-money payments
come president. tion of publishing it, either to McDougal and other
Federal prosecutors re- as a favor to a celebrity damaging stories it killed
vealed Wednesday they In this Jan. 31, 2014 photo, David Pecker, Chairman and CEO subject or to gain leverage as part of its relationship
had agreed not to prose- of American Media Inc., addresses those attending the Shape & over the person. with Trump, who is longtime
cute American Media Inc. Men’s Fitness Super Bowl Party in New York. The non-prosecution friends with the company’s
for secretly assisting Trump’s Associated Press agreement also requires president, David Pecker. q