Rebuilding L.A.

<p>As we hit the 21-month mark since the Palisades and Eaton fires ignited, we are wrapping up season two of Rebuilding L.A. with a return to a community that knows disaster all too well: Malibu. A third of the city was destroyed by the Palisades fire, even as it was still recovering from the devastating Woolsey fire in 2018. Malibu is a coastal enclave of catastrophe - a paradise prone to burning. Mudflows and erosion, too. Now it’s facing a new threat from the West: a warming and rising Pacifi

<p>'Zone Zero' is the latest tool in California's kit to help mitigate fire risk in the state. The new regulation applies to anyone with a home in a high fire zone, and bans any kind of plant, even well hydrated ones, within a foot of a house. No hedges. No rose bushes. No ivy clinging to the walls. Nada. And homeowners can’t have anything that can catch fire - like fire wood or leaves or a flammable gate - within five feet of a home. Homeowners have five years to comply with these new regulatio

<p>The Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed or damaged at least a dozen schools, adding to the heartbreak and displacement for families that were already dealing with so much. Most of the campuses that suffered the worst are still closed, but this episode is about one school that burned to the ground and rose back up, earlier, even, than expected.  <br><br>Thanks to the sheer grit of some determined parents, and really the luck of the landscape, Marquez Charter Elementary School in the Pacific Pa

<p>There’s a saying that’s come up repeatedly since the L.A. fires in 2025: Disaster does not discriminate, but disaster recovery does. So many people – regardless of their wealth – lost everything. But whether you can claw your way back from disaster really depends on how much cash you have on hand, &nbsp;and how quickly you can get it. Even those who have insurance, the money that's supposed to pay for temporary housing is running out, and there are still not enough funds to build a whole hous

<p>We have a happy update for you. There's a block in Altadena, West Poppyfields Drive, and it's coming back. So far there are 9 houses in the process of rebuilding and a handful of them have all four walls up, roofs, porches, and even front doors attached and windows in. That includes Whitney's Haggins's house. We've been following her efforts to rebuild &nbsp;-- and that of her neighbors -- since last fall when she decided to go with a home design from the Foothill Catalog that had been pre-ap

<p> The LA fires destroyed more than 13,000 structures, but thousands more were left standing in their wake. They were not burned, but saturated in smoke. Even homes beyond the perimeter of the burn zone had smoke damage. But there still hasn't been a lot of testing of these structures — or the soil around them — to see what toxins remain, leaving doubt in the minds of some survivors about whether it's safe to come back.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the absence of the federal government, a handful of loca

<p>The insurance crisis has been well documented after these disasters - people who didn’t have insurance, or not enough insurance, or just can’t get their claims covered. But some folks have made it through that whole process, only to hit another roadblock: their mortgage lenders are holding onto the money.</p> <p>Grace Toohey, a breaking news reporter for the Los Angeles Times, has been in touch with homeowners who say this is a growing issue – and one that has forced them to delay or halt con

<p> For years now, the home insurance market in California has been broken, with carriers suddenly dropping customers without warning and little explanation, leaving them vulnerable to losing everything. The survivors of LA's recent fires know this all too well, and they want someone to fix it. Jane Kim, candidate for state insurance commissioner, has a big plan to upend the system and offer every Californian a public-run disaster insurance plan. She’s calling it “natural disaster insurance for