mitigation News

Moody’s: Northeast U.S. States in the Wildfire Spotlight

States such as California are certainly experiencing a more ferocious wildfire season this year than a relatively quiet 2023. Combined CAL FIRE and U.S. Forest Service figures record over 1 million acres burnt in California this year, way above the …

Fire Mitigation Industry Terror: NYC Gang Member Convicted of Extortion, Racketeering

A gang member who ran a fire restoration company has been convicted of using violence, threats of violence, and extortion to terrorize and dominate the fire restoration industry in New York City. After presiding over a two-week bench trial in …

Are Billions in Wind Mitigation the Answer for Florida’s Insurance Problems?

While Florida’s property insurance landscape appears to be leveling out, much more funding is needed to fortify homes against hurricane winds and prevent devastating losses for insureds and insurers, a few panelists said at the Florida Chamber’s Insurance Summit last …

Explainer: Factors Behind Sydney’s Recent Flood Emergencies

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Parts of Australia’s largest city have been inundated by four major floods since March last year, leaving weary residents questioning how many times they can rebuild. The latest disaster follows Sydney’s wettest-ever start to a year …

Close Calls, or Worse, Spark Push for Wildfire Mitigation

DURANGO, Colo. (AP) — As the Missionary Ridge Fire raged in 2002, the Valley Fire, a second fire, broke out and destroyed six homes within hours near the Falls Creek Ranch subdivision north of Durango. When residents returned after the …

As Drought Intensifies, California Seeing More Wildfires

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — As California sinks deeper into drought it already has had more than 900 additional wildfires than at this point in 2020, which was a record-breaking year that saw more than 4% of the state’s land scorched …

California AG Challenges Housing Plans in Wildfire Areas

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s attorney general is challenging some of the state’s largest suburban development projects as local officials weigh the risk of increasingly devastating wildfires against the state’s dire need for more housing. Attorney General Xavier Becerra on …

California Sets Home Hardening Standards to Lower Fire Risks

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — As consecutive years of catastrophic wildfires in California drive up the cost of insuring homes, state regulators on Monday announced a step toward creating incentives for retrofitting older homes to make them more resilient to fires. …

The Small Riverside Town of Mosby, Missouri, is Disappearing One House at a Time

MOSBY, Mo. — Tammy Kilgore raised the giant claw of a John Deere excavator high in the air, then slammed it down on the roof the house where she had spent nearly her entire adult life. The shingles crunched, but …

In Colorado, 24 High-Hazard Dams Are Seen as Problematic

Two dozen aging dams in Colorado were in unsatisfactory condition and are located in places where their failure would likely kill at least one person, according to an Associated Press investigation that found at least 1,688 such dams nationwide. The …