BUSINESS
March 28, 2011 | Marc Lifsher
The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan will cost insurance companies billions of dollars. In seismically active California, though, just 12% of homes with fire insurance also have earthquake coverage, according to the California Earthquake Authority. The authority, an independent government agency created by the state Legislature in 1996, is the largest of a handful of insurers that sell earthquake coverage in the Golden State. Here's a look at some key facts about earthquake insurance.
BUSINESS
September 11, 2010 | Ronald D. White
PG&E Corp. told federal regulators Friday that its utility has nearly $1 billion in fire insurance to cover liabilities from the deadly natural gas pipeline blast in San Bruno, but added that its financial condition "could be materially adversely affected" if the insurance coverage falls short or isn't available. Skittish investors fled PG&E's stock, wiping out about $1 billion in the San Francisco company's market value on Friday. PG&E shares plunged $4.03, or 8.4%, to $44.21 in heavy trading.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 6, 2010 | By Veronica Rocha, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles County officials are advising foothill residents to make sure their homes are protected and insured amid this year's already devastating fire season. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, Los Angeles County firefighters and members of the county's Commission on Insurance gathered Wednesday at Fire Camp No. 2 in La CaƱada Flintridge to discuss options for home fire protection and to remind residents to check their insurance policies for fire coverage. "All we want is to make sure the residents of Glendale and Burbank are prepared to rebuild should there be a fire," said Scott Svonkin, the commission's chairman.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 24, 2008 | Catherine Saillant and Jia-rui Chong, Saillant and Chong are Times staff writers.
As Southern California deals with the reality of recurring, destructive wildfires, a sometimes-controversial cottage industry of private response teams has sprung up to help save the homes of well-to-do clients. Such teams were highly visible in the Tea fire, which raged across one of the nation's costliest neighborhoods, destroying 210 homes and damaging nine others. Peter Jacobson believes one of these teams saved his home.
BUSINESS
November 19, 2008 | DAVID LAZARUS
When Dave Wilder and his wife, Lynn, surveyed the remains of their Running Springs house after it burned to the ground in a wildfire near Lake Arrowhead in October 2007, the thing that struck him most wasn't the devastation, and it wasn't the loss of everything they owned. It was the sound his wife made -- a mournful wail, almost a howl of despair, that echoed through the charred trees on the hillside.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 18, 2008 | David Pierson, Pierson is a Times staff writer.
Once again, thousands of Southern Californians reeling from days of destructive wildfires have been forced to exercise the home insurance policies they hoped they would never have to use. That it comes at a time of global financial crisis raises a new set of questions: how healthy are the insurance companies that protect homeowners in a region continually battered by fires? And will the current economic climate result in higher premiums?