Summary

President Biden announced the federal government will cover 100% of costs for initial disaster response to the Los Angeles wildfires for 180 days.

The funding includes debris removal, temporary shelters, and first responder salaries.

Biden declared a major disaster, allowing immediate aid access, and directed the Pentagon to assist with firefighting resources.

With 28,000 acres burned, five deaths, and mass evacuations, Biden urged Congress to provide additional aid.

FEMA is coordinating recovery efforts on-site.

  • AGD4@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Just to confirm, there’s no plan to subsidize the rebuilding of $40,000,000 mansions, right?

    • just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      Rich tend to have power and influence. If biden wants to create a legacy for him and his associates (whether his kins or the party members), he needs to serve the rich people’s needs first and foremost.

      It is only rational that he does that. Isn’t it?

    • Lemming421@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I don’t know about the US, but in the UK, rebuilding would be covered by the homeowner’s buildings insurance.

      Although insurance companies would probably try to claim it as an Act Of God to get out of it. Don’t know how that would go legally…

      • brlemworld@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I’m an Atheist. Act of God is nonsense. What does it even mean? It can mean whatever the fucking insurance wants it to mean and it’s horseshit

        • NiHaDuncan@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I’m an atheist that understands that an act of god refers to any destructive natural event where the damage to property couldn’t have been reasonably prevented. And insurance companies detail exactly what is and isn’t covered per policy; it’s just that they can get away with denying coverage due to lack of oversight/policing of them.

          • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
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            3 days ago

            I Germany we call it “Höhere Gewalt”. While that can refer to something supernatural, it just means “higher force” and I think it does a good job as a term.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Dude, I’m also an atheist and very vocal about it. Don’t be that kind of atheist. Pick your battles and realize that trying to eliminate religious words from non-religious applications is not one you’re going to win. This is really no different from atheists who refuse to do things like exclaim, “Jesus Christ!” when they stub their toe or are super frustrated or whatever as if the words have some sort of power.

                As someone who thinks there is no such thing as the supernatural, maybe don’t give words so much power?

              • SirHery@lemmy.world
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                3 days ago

                Yeah it’s not supernatural. It’s just that nature itself is a higher force than we are, or can you prevent an earthquake?

            • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Insurance is literally a market of risk assessments. The odds of any given event are x, y and z and the cost of each of those events are a, b, and c. Take the number of people who are applying for policies and spread the cost based on the risks and figure out how much each needs to pay to be able to cover x, y or z should/when any of them occur. There’s discussions to be had on how much a percentage of profit should be allowable on the top and how much to subsidize on known high risk coverage that is not mathematically reasonable but it all boils down to buying risk based on the chance and cost of any given event happening. Act of God/Force Majeure make complete sense when framing it this way. The insurance policy is based on known and predicted risks. You don’t have volcano insurance in NJ and you don’t have hurricane insurance in Kansas because they aren’t expected disasters so they aren’t included in the risk calculations. Act of God is a catch all term for things beyond the expected scope of the policy which is based on clearly established limits and scenarios.

            • NiHaDuncan@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Many modern buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes of some magnitude; this is what reasonable prevention means.

              You can’t prevent any natural force unless your uncle knows god (and is on good terms with them). What was stated was the ‘reasonable prevention of damage’. insurance companies that sell earthquake insurance won’t insure buildings that are not up to code, which in turn is based on locally expected disasters, their expected commonality, their expected severity, and what is considered to be reasonable measures for the prevention of damage (or an excess of e.g. mitigation).

              For example, where I live you can’t get hail insurance unless you have impact resistant shingles. I had and have exactly that so I got hail insurance; after a particularly bad hail storm (and 8 previous years of wear) I filed a claim and had my entire roof redone at my insurer’s expense. I was kind of surprised how straight forward the process was and the stark absence of bullshittery, but I may have just gotten lucky. The area I’m in gets a lot of hail so it may also be in the insurer’s best interesting not to get a name for denying for hail damage.

              • boonhet@lemm.ee
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                2 days ago

                unless your uncle knows god (and is on good terms with them).

                You don’t have to use the non-specific pronoun. We all know god is a woman from the documentary by Kevin Smith.

        • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Yeah wtf with the religious taint. That’s what I call all these stupid terms that creep into secular government and businesses because it reminds me of the Zerg’s creep from StarCraft. Lol

      • Aphelion@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        No, fire insurance is a required part of home owners insurance in California, at least for now, but I’m sure the cost of this fire will have insurers squirming to get out of that.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I haven’t read the articles but there’s a bunch of headlines that insurance companies were dropping a lot of houses in the Palisades area.

      • glimse@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Acts of God are covered by homeowners insurance unless explicitly stated otherwise. A homeowner in the Palisades without fire insurance is…playing with fire.

        • Revan343
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          4 days ago

          A homeowner in the Palisades without fire insurance probably doesn’t have it because their insurance company dropped them, after doing the calculations and realizing how likely a fire was

      • Skates@feddit.nl
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        3 days ago

        Holy shit, if that’s how they wanna play this, God’s telling me to shoot some insurance fucks.

        • Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com
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          3 days ago

          Josh Johnson had a joke something like:


          Luigi can easily get out of it by taking the stand and going:

          I tried to call them, but I was on hold for so long that it just seemed faster to deal with it in person. I wanted to tell them I was crazy.


          Obviously better phrased, better paced better everything. Incredible

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      4 days ago

      FEMA provides assistance to make essential repairs to homes in some instances, but does not provide rebuilding assistance is my understanding. They do provide funding for temporary shelter and essential supplies, but those amounts are not tied to income.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      No mention of rebuilding subsidies for homeowners. I assume they’ll be assisting with state-funded infrastructure after recovery as well.

      Meeting with federal officials at the White House, Biden said the funds would go toward debris removal, temporary shelters, salaries for first responders and more for 180 days.

      • AGD4@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        For sure, it is. But in the likely event that insurance providers somehow deny the claim, the cynic in me expects the government to provide socialized support for the wealthy as soon as it can.

        • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          Because the wealthy are always made whole. It’s only the working class who can’t stand up for themselves who are generally taken advantage of by insurance agencies.