While debris removal from the Palisades Fire is moving ahead of schedule, it’s still expected to take years before the area is fully recovered.
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“I think in 3 years we are going to see substantial, dramatic progress,” Los Angeles Councilmember Traci Park, whose district includes the Pacific Palisades, told KNX News’ Craig Fiegener. “Will the last heavy vehicle have vacated the town at that point? Will it have returned to Mayberry? I don't think so, but we will be well, well on our way.”
Park recently visited Paradise, where the Camp Fire destroyed 14,000 homes and killed 85 people in 2018, to talk to city leaders about their recovery.
“They have had a much slower rebuilding process than they would have liked, maybe only about 30%, but Paradise is now actually the fastest-growing city in California,” she said.
She said that to avoid some of the pitfalls that plagued Paradise’s recovery, L.A. needs to focus on closing the financial gap for fire survivors who were uninsured or underinsured.
“There are some people in the Palisades who will be fine, but there's a whole bunch of people who aren't,” she said. “So we're working with the banking industries and the insurance companies and working with philanthropy, thinking through how we can start to close those gaps.”
Later this month, Park will travel to Maui to discuss the recovery from the 2023 fire in Lahaina that claimed more than 100 lives and caused $5.5 billion in damage.
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