Strong Winds.

Brain-eating amoebas.

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1. Currently Active Incidents:

Palisades Fire: 23,713 acres…..14% contained.

Eaton Fire: 14,117 acres…………33% contained.

Hurst Fire: 799 acres……………….97% contained.

(Source: fire.ca.gov)

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2. Strong winds are forecast to return to Los Angeles overnight into Tuesday, a potential setback for firefighters battling to contain the deadly blazes that have killed at least 24 people. The resurgent winds could cause “explosive fire growth,” according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologists predict that the strongest winds will hit the city Tuesday morning, with gusts of up to 55 mph. A red flag warning is in place for parts of the Los Angeles area through 6 p.m. Wednesday local time. (Source: washingtonpost.com)

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3. Elizabth Kolbert:

For homeowners who can’t find fire insurance, California has an insurer of last resort, known as the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, or FAIR, plan. The FAIR plan was established by the state, but it is operated by private companies, which pool the risks. Florida, Louisiana, and Texas have similar entities, and Colorado recently established one. As insurers have pulled out of California, the number of policies written by the state’s FAIR plan has risen steeply; just since late 2023, it has grown by more than forty per cent. Meanwhile, the value of the residential properties insured by FAIR has risen to more than four hundred and fifty billion dollars, triple what it was in 2020. This has led to worries that, with all the damage from the current fires, the plan will go broke.

“I’m concerned that we’re one bad fire season away from complete insolvency,” Jim Wood, then a California assemblyman, said back in March. Were FAIR unable to meet its obligations, the state’s insurance companies would have to make up the difference….

“The bet on the FAIR Plan is the state’s decision to do whatever it takes to keep property markets working, even in risky areas, and to mute the price signal of riskiness,” Susan Crawford, a clinical professor emeritus at Harvard Law, wrote in a recent Substack post. “That bet may now be being called. No one knows what will happen next.” (Source; newyorker.com)

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4. New cases of dementia will double by 2060, when 1 million U.S. adults are projected to develop the memory-robbing condition each year, according to a sobering new study published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine. The new analysis shows that the risk a person faces over their lifetime is higher than some previous estimates: After age 55, 4 in 10 adults are likely to develop some form of dementia. That’s in part because the new analysis is based on decades of close follow-up, including regular cognitive assessments, of a racially diverse group of people — a quarter of whom were Black and face an increased risk of dementia. (Sources: washingtonpost.com, nature.com, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)