'Communities will not survive': Insurance nightmares could empty small California towns

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By Shelby Conn, SFGate. 

Excerpt: ...11% of Siskiyou County households [are] on the California FAIR Plan — a fire-only insurance policy no homeowner wants to turn to. ...the reality for many residents and business owners living in California’s rural, high-fire risk areas, where costly insurance rates are forcing homeowners who own their properties outright to forgo insurance altogether. ...“The FAIR Plan is not intended to compete with or replace insurers in the voluntary market.” Rather, it is meant to provide “basic fire insurance coverage for high-risk properties when traditional insurance companies will not,” she said.  The state’s escalating wildfire risk has driven more and more insurers out of the market in California. A study funded by the National Integrated Drought Information System estimated that, between 1971 and 2021, the number of acres burned in California rose by 172%. That number is only expected to grow, with California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment projecting a 77% increase in the average area burned across the state by 2100.... 

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