There are 17 active wildfires burning in California most in Northern California the biggest and most damaging is the car fire in Shasta County near Redding which has claimed six lives burned more than a hundred and fifteen thousand acres and destroyed close to a thousand homes. Homeowners hoping for help in rebuilding may have a rude awakening when it comes to how much government assistance they can get even if the Federal Emergency Management Agency starts to help with individual fire losses that help will be very limited. Joining me is Ben Adler capitol bureau chief with Capital Public Radio. And Ben welcome to the program. Good to be back with you again. Has there been a disaster declaration approved by the feds over the recent wildfires. Well for the car fire Governor Brown did on Friday asked for federal assistance and received it very quickly on Saturday from President Trump and from FEMA. But that assistance is actually just specifically resources to fight the fires specifically the car fire. So you know looking at additional helicopters and other federal aid the governor has not yet asked for a presidential major disaster declaration that would provide either public resources federal money to rebuild public buildings or streets roads highways culverts bridges et cetera or for individual assistance which is for private property owners. The reason as best I can tell for that is it's just too early to ask for specific you know amounts of help for specific damages because everyone still trying to fight the fire and you can't even assess what the full extent of the damage is yet because some of the damage is likely has yet to be done. Now to talk about the individual assistance that FEMA sometimes provides. Sure. So you're looking at grants of up to thirty two thousand dollars that can be used to repair your home or replace a car if a car burnt down or for you know short term living expenses like if you're in a hotel or trailer or something like that until you can you are even renting for a month to month until you can get back into your home. So that is what the money is available for it's roughly up to 32000 dollars total. But there's a really big catch for this and the catch is that if you're already getting money for this purpose from your insurance or from some other public program or private program then the feds aren't going to give you money. And the reason being you know the argument that FEMA made to me when I got them on the phone is it wouldn't be a good use of taxpayer funds to have the federal government paying you for what you're already getting help for from your insurance. Now that can make some sense. You can understand that on the other hand if you're under insured which some homeowners are you know it would be nice to get that federal help on top of whatever you're getting from your insurance and that's not something that you are entitled to. Did you work on this report been talking about how little government money is available to individual homeowners because there's a perception that FEMA will help people rebuild. Well I think it's only natural to think that if you know your home gets burned down in a major natural disaster like this and you know you're not talking about just a you know what a grease fire or something that that burns one house down there there is always a lot of news about OK there is you know the governor is declaring a state of emergency and the president is granting federal funds to help with wildfire damages. And look the money is absolutely needed for what it goes toward. And so it could be natural for someone who might have lost their home or had their home damaged to assume some of this federal money is coming to them. And in fact a little bit is but not much. The real reason I started digging into this is because of this big policy debate going on at the Capitol right now or that is going to kick in in earnest next week when lawmakers return from summer recess. And that is about wildfire liability. So who should be on the hook for the billions of dollars of damages that we're seeing now that we saw last year in the Northern California and Southern California wildfires and that given California's changing climate we are almost assured of seeing next year and the year after and the year after that. These are unprecedented amounts of damages and under current California law utilities like San Diego Gas and Electric are responsible for any damages any and all damages that stem from fires that were caused by a utility's equipment even if the utility did nothing wrong. Just last year your listeners may recall that San Diego Gas and Electric tried to recover some of the costs for the damages that it paid for the 2007 fires in your area. And the California Public Utilities Commission did not allow Estey to pass those costs to ratepayers and that's a key issue for PG&E and Southern California Edison in particular as well as SD and that is a big battle that is happening at the Capitol as we deal with these fires right now in real time. Is it fair to say that most of the assistance that these victims will get to try to rebuild their homes will come from private homeowners insurance if they have it. Certainly under the status quo the vast majority of money going toward these damages are going to come from private insurance and then the insurance industry seeks to and frequently does recover that money from utilities if utilities are found to have had their equipment be involved in the cause of the fire. But I think that is what this big debate at the Capitol is all about. Should utilities be on the hook for it. Utilities say no we really shouldn't be unless we are negligent. Right now even if we're not negligent we're on the hook. The other side of this debate. You've got insurance companies and trial lawyers and repair groups saying yeah utilities should be on the hook if their equipment is used and if utilities are no longer on the hook then everything's going to be passed on to the insurance industry and then maybe the insurance industry isn't going to be able to insure and some of these high risk areas or premiums would go up not just in those areas but be spread throughout the state in order for the industry to be able to make its math work and cover all of these homes so this issue of liability and this issue of who pays you know. Is there a way of making it so that if you are choosing to live in a high risk area that you willingly are paying more for insurance and you or your not being insurance a you're on the hook entirely if your home burns down. That's a question that's being asked. Should new homes be built in high fire risk areas should utilities provide electricity to those areas. Lot of heavy questions being asked because of so much money at stake and the fact that really if you pay a utility bill if you pay an insurance bill you are going to be affected one way or another by this policy debate over wildfire liability shakes out at the Capitol. And the deadline for that is when lawmakers adjourn at the end of August midnight on August 31. I've been speaking with Ben Adler capitol bureau chief with Capital Public Radio. Ben thank you.
As California lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown debate who should pay for the billions of dollars in wildfire damages, residents might wonder how much government help is available to rebuild their homes.
The answer? Not much.
When the president approves a Major Disaster Declaration for a California wildfire — and federal funding starts flowing into the state — there are two kinds of help.
There is public assistance, to fight the fire and rebuild public roads and buildings. And sometimes there is also individual assistance.
“That money that’s available to individuals is limited, because it’s a federal grant program and we definitely cannot make people whole,” said Brandi Richard with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The maximum available assistance for an individual from a FEMA grant? Approximately $32,000. And there are no state grants, according to the California Office of Emergency Services.
You can spend the federal individual assistance money to repair or replace a damaged or destroyed home, vehicle or other property, or it can go toward short-term living expenses until you can return home, such as a hotel room or apartment rental.
But even that has a catch: FEMA individual grants can only be used for a purpose not already covered by another government agency or your insurance.
“Let’s say your home was damaged and you’re receiving assistance to repair your home for the same damages that we’ve given you money for, we can’t do that,” Richard said. “That’s not a good use of taxpayer dollars.”
On Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown requested a Presidential Emergency Declaration for Direct Federal Assistance to help the state battle the deadly Carr Fire near Redding. President Trump and FEMA granted that request on Saturday.
“This federal assistance includes air assets to mitigate the impacts of this fire, shelter supplies and water for evacuated residents, and support with mass care, ambulatory transport and the evacuation of individuals with access and functional needs as well as large animals,” Brown’s office said in a press release.
A request for individual assistance from the federal government was not included but could come later.
