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President Donald Trump has ordered the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stop sending emergency funds to assist with the California wildfires, unless officials in the state can “get their act together”.
In a @realDonaldTrump tweet posted on Wednesday, the president wrote: “Billions of dollars are sent to the state of California for forest fires that, with proper forest management, would never happen. Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!”
Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen. Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2019
According to Reuters, insurance claims from the recent Californian wildfires have topped $9 billion and are expected to grow. Global reinsurer Munich Re recently named the Camp Fire - a deadly and destructive blaze that broke out in the mountain community of Paradise on November 08 – as the costliest natural disaster of 2018, causing $16.5 billion damages of which $12.5 billion were insured.
Munich Re’s chief climatologist Ernst Rauch recently told Reuters that wildfires have entered a whole new dimension, costing tens of billions of dollars. He also said the peril seems to be more common as a result of climate change.
