Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter reveals AccuWeather's estimate of total damage and economic loss from the devastating wildfires that scorched Southern California to be $250 billion to $275 billion.
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00:00When you and I spoke with Ken yesterday, and we were talking about this, it was such a telling statement, Ken, making that everything is now over with that fire danger and the fires that actually have been burned.
00:13But boy, the damage has been substantial.
00:16It's been staggering, and we're talking about people's lives that have been changed forever in a matter of a couple of minutes with these fast-moving and wind-driven infernos.
00:25AccuWeather estimates $250 to $275 billion in total damage and economic loss.
00:31To put that number into perspective, that $275 billion, that would be 7% of the gross domestic product of California.
00:40So you could see the big impact to the economy that such a large number can have.
00:44You know, when you look at other disasters, the one disaster that compares to at least the number there is Hurricane Helene, which occurred late last year.
00:56It does. It shows that it's on the same sort of order of magnitude, a little bit higher in total damage and economic loss.
01:03You can see the Maui fires, $13 to $16 billion.
01:06So far less, obviously, great impact in Hawaii, but from a total economic loss and damage perspective, far less.
01:13And then almost the amount for the entire U.S. wildfire season, a very active year from 2018, in just a couple of weeks with those fires occurring in a densely populated area.
01:26You know, John, there's a lot of other organizations also putting out numbers, but we think that our number is likely is more accurate given when you take everything into account.
01:40But I did want to show you some other sources, John.
01:43Yeah, here's some other numbers that are out there.
01:45And you notice that the estimates from Moody's $20 to $30 billion, JPMorgan $20 billion, $40 billion from Goldman Sachs as an example.
01:54But notice the summary of these.
01:56Most of these include just insured damages, direct impacts from the fires.
02:01They don't consider the holistic approach that AccuWeather does.
02:05And these numbers grossly underestimate the long-term damage to the economy and the financial challenges that people, businesses, communities are going to face.
02:14Many cases these are underestimated and or they're not inclusive of all those factors.
02:20They're just the direct impacts in a lot of cases.
02:22And that really does not show the more holistic picture that only AccuWeather provides.
02:27And also, our number also includes long-term effects, correct, John?
02:32That's a big factor here because think about this.
02:35Not only long-term effects on tourism, but job losses.
02:39Some businesses may fail.
02:41And also the long-term health impacts.
02:43Consider the 18 million people live within the Los Angeles metro area.
02:47Many people were exposed to dangerous pollution in the air, not only from the wildfire smoke, but asbestos and other dangerous materials that were in the burned buildings.
02:56All that was lofted into the air.
02:58So just like a hurricane, we're unfortunately expecting to see hundreds, perhaps thousands of excess deaths and serious illness in the years and even decade following the fires because of all that pollution.
03:10So the long-term health impacts and long-term impacts to the economy, very substantial and why that number is the most holistic view of just how challenging it's going to be for people in California.
03:22AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.
03:24John, thanks for breaking it down and explaining it to our viewers.