California’s wildfires could be the costliest disaster in U.S. history, the state’s governor said, as forecasts of high winds raise fears of further spread of catastrophic fires.
In remarks to NBC Meet the press On Sunday, Gavin Newsom said the fires — which have burned more than 40,000 acres, according to CalFire, the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection — would be the worst the country had seen “in terms of costs associated with it,” [and] in terms of scale and scope.
He added that there would likely be “many more” confirmed deaths. The death toll rose to 16 on Saturday evening, according to Los Angeles authorities.
The prospect of Sunday being dealt with by the Santa Ana winds that fanned the flames left tens of thousands of residents under evacuation orders. The fires threatened homes in the upscale Mandeville Canyon and Brentwood neighborhoods, although officials said they had made progress in stemming the advance in those areas.
The National Weather Service is forecasting gusts between 50 mph and 70 mph, while drought conditions persist.
“We know that high critical fire conditions will continue through Wednesday,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Maroney said Sunday.
Los Angeles is experiencing its second driest start to the rainy season in more than a century, according to the nonprofit news service Cal Matters. Halfway through the season, Los Angeles has only seen about 0.2 inches of rain since October, well below the 4.5 inches common in January.
Newsom, a Democrat, responded to a barrage of attacks from Donald Trump. The new Republican president accused the governor of depleting water supplies to protect an endangered species of fish, and of refusing to sign a “water restoration declaration” that would have “allowed million gallons of water. . . flowing daily into many parts of California.” Newsom’s office said no such statement existed.
Trump, who has had a long-running feud with Newsom and nicknamed him “Newscum,” also called on the Californian to resign, accusing him of “gross incompetence.”
“The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California,” Newsom said.
“I think this misinformation and disinformation does not benefit or help any of us,” he added. “We would spend another month responding to Donald Trump’s insults. I know them very well. All the elected officials with whom he disagrees know them very well.”
Newsom also said he had invited the president-elect to tour affected areas, but had yet to receive a response from Trump’s transition team.
Firefighters have put out three fires since Tuesday, including the Sunset fire that threatened the Hollywood Hills. The Hurst Fire in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, was 80% contained as of Sunday afternoon.
But firefighters are still struggling to control the two biggest fires. Newsom said on the social media platform X that the Palisades and Eaton fires were 11 percent and 27 percent contained. Thousands of firefighters have been deployed to battle the Palisades fire with heavy trucks and air support, the mayor’s office said Sunday. The city also opened shelters for affected families.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has staff in Los Angeles to help Angelenos apply for disaster relief, while the Federal Small Business Administration offers disaster loans for individuals and businesses .
Newsom issued an executive order that he said would prevent those who lost their homes from being “caught up in red tape” so they could quickly rebuild.
The head of Fema raised the possibility on Sunday that American troops could be sent to Los Angeles to help bring the fire under control.
“There are active duty military personnel who are ready to deploy, who are ready to come in and continue to support the firefighting efforts,” Deanne Criswell told ABC. This week program. Speaking on CNN, she warned that strong winds expected in the coming days could further spread the fire.
No official estimate of the cost of the damage has yet been released, but AccuWeather analysts last week estimated the economic loss at between $135 billion and $150 billion, a cost of less than $250 billion. Hurricane Helene last year. At least 12,300 structures were destroyed, according to CalFire.
President Joe Biden promised Thursday that the US government would pay “100% of all costs” caused by the disaster and would ask Congress for additional financial aid.
Trump, who during his election campaign last year threatened to cut off disaster funding in California, has so far remained silent on whether he would provide similar aid. On Sunday, he renewed his attacks on state officials.
“Incompetent Poles do not know how to put [the fires] outside,” he wrote. “There is death everywhere. It is one of the worst disasters in the history of our country. They just can’t put out fires. What’s wrong with them?
