Trump order seeks to fast-track rebuild of properties destroyed by wildfires

Compiled from news services and press releases

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order paving the way for a federal takeover of California’s wildfire recovery efforts, the White House announced on Tuesday. 

Coming one year after the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon wildfires in Los Angeles County, the order tasks the leaders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration to develop measures to supersede state and local authority and help expedite the rebuilding of homes and businesses that have yet to be replaced.  

The order also directs them to audit the state to learn if it spent all of the nearly $3 billion it received in Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds, and how it was spent. 

“I want to see if we can take over the city and state and just give the people their permits they want to build,” Trump told the California Post when he signed the order on Friday. 

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes the Santa Clarita Valley as well as the neighborhoods devastated by the Eaton Canyon Fire in Altadena, issued a statement in response to Trump’s order that, while welcoming efforts to expedite reconstruction, also pointed out the county’s own efforts toward that same goal.  

“I welcome any effort to responsibly accelerate rebuilding. Los Angeles County already has a local self-certification process to help expedite rebuilding, along with streamlined approvals for modular, factory-built homes, and pre-approved plans,” Barger said in the statement released by her office. “Permits currently spend just over 30 business days in the county’s plan check, with additional delays stemming from the complex multi-party work of architects, engineers and builders.” 

Barger added that FEMA has a key role to play. 

“I appreciate the administration’s acknowledgement of the important role FEMA plays in disaster recovery. The most urgent need in the Altadena region is financially driven. Families lack the capital to kick start or continue their rebuilding plans. Our county will soon face a mass sheltering crisis as survivors’ insurance and emergency relief funds run out,” she said in the statement. 

Barger added: “As FEMA’s role expands into this new recovery function, I’m hopeful that the federal government will collaborate with our county to implement a mass housing and sheltering program and offer long-term disaster aid (such as Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds) so we can accelerate recovery. All survivors deserve full support from all levels of government so they have a fair shot at rebuilding their lives.” 

The Palisades fire raged for almost the entire month of January last year, killing 12 people and destroying more than 6,800 structures as it burned across more than 23,400 acres. The Eaton Canyon fire burned more than 14,000 acres, destroying approximately 9,400 structures and damaging hundreds more. It took the lives of at least 19 people and injured several firefighters. 

Tens of thousands of people were displaced.  

The White House released a fact sheet with the executive order, saying that only about 2,500 of those destroyed homes and businesses have received permits to rebuild, and less than 10 have been rebuilt. 

Blame for the lack of progress was credited by the White House to state and local permitting processes and environmental reviews, which it said cause significant delays, drive up costs, and prolong economic hardships. 

Trump also called out multiple alleged failures on the part of state and local governments in not just the recovery efforts after the wildfires, but also the mitigation practices beforehand and the immediate response to the fires. 

He specifically called out Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, saying the fires’ disastrous results were “one of the greatest failures of elected political leadership in American history.”  

Bass rebuked Trump’s order, calling it another political stunt and arguing he had no authority over the permitting process. 

In an emailed statement, she also denounced his claims of failed progress, saying that more than 450 homes in the Pacific Palisades have begun reconstruction, and more than 70% of the home permit clearances are no longer required, cutting the approval time for single-family home projects in half from what it was before the fires. 

“The president should handle his business, because we are handling ours,” she said. 

She urged the president to speed up FEMA reimbursements and sign another executive order that demanded insurance companies pay out survivors for their losses, and urged banks to extend mortgage forbearance by three years, as well as “create a special fund to provide no-interest loans to fire survivors.” 

T.J. Muscaro contributed to this report. 

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