More than 75 adjusters from a north Phoenix insurance firm have gone to southern California to help assess the damage from last week's wildfires.
USAA is a firm that provides insurance to people with ties to the military. In an area of San Diego where many such residents live, USAA has set out to help the rebuilding begin.
It is a huge cost to California Insurer in history.
Please be noted the following quotes.Of the 23 fires, the Witch Fire in San Diego has caused the most property damage so far and is likely to result in insured losses of US$600 million to US$1 billion
The fires have burned more than 465,000 acres of land and destroyed more than 1,600 structures since Oct. 21.
More than 27,000 buildings remain under threat, and nearly 1 million people have been forced from their homes, making it the largest ever evacuation in California and the biggest in the United States since Katrina.
This image, captured by a NASA satellite on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007, shows smoke coming off the numerous wildfires from Santa Barbara,.Calif., stretching into Mexico, spreading over the Pacific Ocean. Walls of wind-whipped flames consumed hundreds of homes across tinder-dry Southern California on Tuesday, raising the number of people forced to flee the flames into the thousands.
Volunteer firefighters from Running Springs try to halt the spead of flames in Green Valley Lake, a community about 12 miles east of Lake Arrowhead. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / October 22, 2007)
There are two news from fire in California.
Fires could alter Calif. insurance landscape
Some insurance company stop writing new homeowner policy in California.
It will be seen that the premium of homeowner policies will hike.
Regulator says insurers can bring in out-of-state adjusters to help
There is not enough adjusters in state for this big fire losses.
In the recent poll managed by Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University, 52 percent of voters would approve one-cent sales tax increase to help fund health insurance, while 38 percent would vote against it.
It will helpful to improve health benefit for California residents.
That might bode well for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - if he decides to ask voters for such an increase to help pay for universal health care.