Used clothing is an especially unwieldy gift for aid groups and disaster victims.

The home construction market has already been dealing with shortages of skilled labor and building materials, along with expensive construction loans. Those factors will add to the costs of rebuilding communities destroyed by fires.

With inventory reduced and fire risk increased, both home prices and insurance rates could rise in Southern California.

Insurance companies have a surplus to help pay out claims, but that doesn’t mean an insurer will be available in your state.

“We’re never going to get to affordability if we don’t get insurers back into California. And the way we do that is by bringing down the risk,” said Ricardo Lara, the California Insurance Commissioner.

Today: a conversation with California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara about gaps in insurance and what the road to recovery might look like.

Claire Contreras, an elementary school teacher, reflects on the challenges of trying to find long-term places to stay after losing her home.

Cyrus Farivar of Forbes explored how the power of nature overwhelmed the AI-powered network of sensors. But as wildfire damage increases across the country, the emerging “fire tech” field is working on solutions, he explains.

The fires in Los Angeles “could make this the costliest insured loss due to wildfires in history globally,” said Karen Collins with the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

While more damage and displacement is expected, we’ll examine the estimated losses recorded so far.