Rural Californians struggle to keep homeowners insurance in wake of wildfires

PBS reported a few days ago from Greenville, California, destroyed by the Dixie Fire in early August.  Here's an excerpt from the story, Cat Wise being the journalist and Kevin Goss a pharmacist and member of the County Board of Supervisors, whose pharmacy was destroyed:

The state of California has issued a moratorium that will prevent insurers from dropping homeowners in wildfire-scorched areas over the next year. And the California FAIR Plan is supposed to ensure that all homeowners, including high-risk ones, have some basic fire insurance. But barriers remain.

Kevin Goss:

Insurance is always a problem, homeowners insurance. And some of these folks could not afford the higher rates that these insurance companies are having to charge to insure these homes.

Cat Wise:

It's only the beginning of a long process of cleaning up, but Kevin Goss says that, so far, they have gotten the help they need because this small town sits at a crucial waterway.

Kevin Goss:

They are actually moving at a pace that is urgent, as we are the headwaters to the Feather River that feeds Oroville, which is one of the main water sources for the state of California.

So, this debris, they do not want to go into that water system.

Cat Wise:

These green wattles are supposed to keep that debris from contaminating the water system.

Still, Chad Hermann says the aftermath of a wildfire in a rural community like Greenville is a far different picture than when fire strikes wealthier California enclaves

Chad Hermann:

When you look at the fires that they had down in Sonoma, you have an infrastructure with a fantastic money base, between the wineries and industry. In the real mountain communities, you don't have that.

We're not a rich county. So, when you have a group of people who have very little to begin with, and they lose everything, it makes it very difficult to come back from that. And we still have people without adequate housing. So we have people that are still in tents and travel trailers.

Cat Wise:

Kevin Goss is hopeful that the town he's known all his life will rise again with better fire-wise planning and more resilient construction materials to prevent the town from burning again.

Kevin Goss:

Some folks, the trauma is going to be too much for them to come back. And it's just — it's permanently seared in their brain and they don't want to go through that again. Folks like myself and others are going to say, hey, you know what? We're going to build this thing back to where it can survive a fire like this.

Most folks want to come back to their home. I mean, even though it looks like this, it's still their home. It's their piece of property. It's their — where they grew up or where they have had all these memories.

Note the contrast with Sonoma County, where wine country interests ensure more resources for fighting fires.  

Earlier posts about the Dixie Fire and the destruction of Greenville are here.