Investigators and medical crews have sifted through the damage of the Lahaina wildfire and will continue to do so for weeks. The death toll could reach 200. On a less critical note, one expert firm says residential housing has been hit for as much as $1.3 billion. (These 20 states are being destroyed by natural disasters.)
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CoreLogic recently reported that 3,088 residential properties were destroyed. The total replacement value of these is $1,277,888,641. Among the things residents will need to deal with is whether they had adequate insurance, if they had insurance at all. The government may help fund some rebuilding.

The cost of climate change has become more evident by the day, based on better and more sophisticated analyses. And the price tag continues to climb steadily. Wildfires are part of this equation. In the United States, other significant factors are flooding, tornados, hurricanes and drought. Much of the nation, particularly the West, constantly struggles with drought, which helps keep the frequency and deadliness of wildfires growing.

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Hurricane season has started in earnest. That puts states from Texas to Florida to Connecticut at risk. Not only are the storms more frequent, but they are more powerful. The next few months will show if the trend of increasingly stronger storms continues.

Finally, the climate crisis effect most in the news recently is temperature. It rounds out the picture of a grim year for many Americans.

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