The Brief

Insurance is meant to be a safety net, but for thousands of survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires, it’s become a major barrier to their ability to rebuild.

Almost every major insurer — State Farm, AAA, USAA and the California FAIR Plan — has faced lawsuits alleging underinsurance, delays and inconsistent support in the wake of January’s devastation.

Now a group of fire survivors with AAA insurance say they're facing an average gap of $300,000 between the payouts they're due and what it will cost to rebuild. So they're calling on the insurer to allow them to use money set aside to replace their personal property for their rebuilds without completing the full inventory of what they lost.

“The question you have to ask yourself is what is the point of buying insurance if it's not actually going to rebuild your home?” said Andrew King, who lost his home in Altadena.

Andrew King's house in Altadena before the Eaton Fire.

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Courtesy Andrew King

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Andrew King's home after the Eaton Fire.

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Courtesy Andrew King

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He is one of more than 200 survivors with AAA who recently sent a letter to the insurer asking for more flexibility.

“People are really trying to figure out if they're going to have enough money to rebuild, and so if this doesn't get resolved, the reality is you will see a deluge of people selling their homes,” King added.

The insurer has until the end of the month to respond.

The problem

Homeowners who lost their homes in January’s fires still have to pay their mortgages, in addition to rent, while they remain displaced. Temporary housing insurance is meant to help cover rental costs, but as the year anniversary of the fires approaches, those payouts are quickly running out.

Meanwhile, most survivors are still in the traumatic and exhaustive process of compiling lists of the personal items they lost when their homes burned down. While most have been paid 80% of what they’re owed for that insurance, they need to finish the list — and prove they’re going to re-buy much of it — to get the rest.

At the same time, for those who are starting to rebuild, their mortgage companies hold onto their insurance money until they reach certain milestones in rebuilding.

All of this means that a lot of the costs have to come out of pocket, forcing difficult choices for those who can’t wait on insurance payouts.

 ”What family is going to be able to do those things without burning through cash?” King asked. “ Are they going to take out debt more? Are they going to start cutting back on paying their mortgage and therefore just be foreclosed on? Are they going to eat less so their kids can eat?”

Nicole Wirth, who also lost her home in Altadena and faces an underinsurance gap of about $300,000, said getting the full payout for her personal property insurance money without having to complete a full inventory would be a lifesaver.

Her message to AAA: “You underinsured us. Now you’re making us kick and scream and do all this traumatic work” to get the personal property payout. Instead, she and others want the full amounts of personal property money they’re owed so they can use it to help finance their rebuild.

The costs of delays 

At the same time, the longer it takes to rebuild, the higher costs are likely to be, as new federal tariffs hit and demand surges. Wirth and other survivors worry that their insurance gaps will only grow and push back their rebuild timelines.

Even for those who aren’t rebuilding, the gap is a barrier to starting their lives over.

Christie McIntire and her family relocated to Tennessee after the fires. After their home burned, they tried to find a place in the L.A. area they could afford to live with their two children and cats, but most rents exceeded their temporary housing coverage.

“ We essentially felt forced out of California,” McIntire said.

They did receive 80% of their personal property payout, but they’ve decided not to rebuild. Still, they can’t get the rebuild insurance money from their mortgage company, which they need to purchase a new home in Tennessee. In the trauma and stress of figuring out their next steps, they have yet to start their inventory to receive the rest of their personal property payout, which they need for a down payment on a new house.

It’s a Catch-22: AAA says they won’t pay them any additional money until they close escrow on that new home — but the McIntires need that money to close. And they need the personal property money they’re owed from AAA to help with a down payment.

“ They say it's incurred cost and … what if you go into escrow on a house and then you back out and go buy something cheaper? I'm like, why would we do that?” McIntire said.

Why so much underinsurance? 

Two lawsuits filed in June against AAA and USAA allege widespread insurance fraud and the use of flawed software that doesn’t accurately calculate insurance costs.

A recent San Francisco Chronicle investigation into California’s major insurers also identified faulty algorithms as a reason for systemic underinsurance across the state. The Legislature recently passed several bills to address insurance and wildfire losses, as well. They now await Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature or veto.

AAA did not respond to detailed questions from LAist regarding how it calculates insurance coverage and if it might consider releasing personal property payments as policyholders have asked.

“At the Auto Club of Southern California, every claim is handled with care and attention, tailored to the unique circumstances of each member and guided by the terms of their individual insurance policy,” AAA spokesperson Doug Shupe said in an email to LAist. “Just as every home is different, so is every claim — and we treat them as such.”

Nicole Wirth and husband Michael with their dogs, Porkchop and Goose, in front of their home in Altadena before the fire.

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Courtesy Nicole Wirth

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That chronic underinsurance is why survivors like King, Wirth and McIntire say insurance should be more flexible — and that, in the case of total loss, personal property insurance should be paid out without requiring a detailed inventory. King said he already has a list with 2,500 lines and still isn’t finished.

There is precedent: Following 2017 North Bay wildfires, multiple insurers — including parts of AAA, USAA, Farmers, Chubb, Allstate and Liberty Mutua — paid personal property coverage to fire survivors without requiring detailed inventories.

“If people cannot get their personal property coverage to pay for their homes, many of them will ultimately be forced to sell,” King said. “ What I'm hearing from nearly every survivor, including myself to some degree, is we are going to have to use the money to buy our stuff to actually rebuild our home. And most of us will be living in shells just because we need a place to live.”

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

From his veranda on the Peninsula, VR Venkataraman gets a front-row seat as wave after wave fueled by Tropical Storm Rachel slams the bulkhead and sprays upwards, more than two stories into the air.

For now, his defenses are holding.

In recent days, city officials and work crews reinforced the bulkhead with 12-by-2 boards and added vertical columns supported by wooden braces, riveted into the boardwalk at the angles Venkataraman determined would provide the most support. He’s not an engineer, but he’s acting like one to protect his Seaside Walk home.

“I did the geometry, figured it out, taught the crew how to do it, and did one with them,” said Venkataraman, a former doctor who now owns an Indian-Mexican fusion cafe. “I’m a human being with adequate knowledge and experience of life. That’s all.”

He is one of many Long Beach Peninsula residents taking swift, creative action in an attempt to save their homes after high surf and tides from multiple storms have eroded beaches and battered properties along the coast. On Saturday, though some residents expressed frustration that there wasn’t more preventative action ahead of this fall’s extreme weather, they said they appreciated how the city has sprung into action and partnered with them to salvage whatever they can. Venkataraman praised Jake Heflin with the fire department and Cory Forrester of Parks, Recreation and Marine for their work to help him harden his property, as well as the support provided by Councilmember Kristina Duggan.

“It’s a process of learning,” Venkataraman said.

On Saturday, city crews continued to shore up beaches where sand was washed away as surf driven by Hurricane Marie pounded the Peninsula last month. By morning, sand berms were piled up ahead of high tide. Other emergency repairs included pumping water off streets and filling in the exposed bulkhead with 1,000 sandbags. Storm drains appeared clear and were able to receive water from flooded streets.

“In an emergency, we act. We spend the money we need to. We protect life and safety, but then we record all of those costs,” City Manager Tom Modica said at a press conference Saturday afternoon.

More than $1 million in one-time costs has already been spent so far, he said. The city will aggressively pursue funding from other sources as it undertakes a seven-part plan for near- and long-term resiliency, Modica said. The city is currently in conversation with the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, he added.

More than $1 million spent so far

Venkataraman was not prepared last month when high surf rushed into his ground floor and dumped more than a foot of sand, rubble and shells into his crawl space, he said. He was forced to rip out several feet of drywall and air out his home with 66 heaters and 18 dehumidifiers from Home Depot.

His first floor was still torn up when powerful waves charged by Tropical Storm Rachel arrived at his door again this week. But this time, he knew he had to take quicker preventative action. He reinforced the planter on his lower level with wood and sandbags and bolstered the bulkhead with various supports.

Though he and his family evacuated and are staying in another home they own, he has been returning to his Peninsula residence during high tides to check on the reinforcements and evaluate what else needs to be done.

He said he now hopes to reinforce the bulkhead on the ocean side, adding 2-by-4 planks for stability. And he said he will continue to periodically tighten the rivets on the support beams, as they loosen with each wall of water that crashes down.

Caught off guard by Hurricane Marie

Other residents have also stepped in to buttress the bulkhead. On Friday, the sand berm protecting 62nd Place washed away, and waves “brought the whole ocean and sand down the street,” said Marc Moore, who lives there. Once the water had receded, he started picking up 10-foot pieces of wood and digging them into the sand near the bulkhead — a DIY solution in the hopes of taking a bit of power out of each swell. “Every wave you can stop might protect somebody’s home,” he said. He added the city should have done more to avoid this current disaster, but now they were fully activated and working closely with residents.

The worst may be yet to come

Some residents said they were anxious for what was to come throughout the weekend; the National Weather Service issued a coastal flood warning and a high surf advisory on Sunday as rainy weather set to arrive threatened more damage. Flooding impacts could be the most significant the region has seen this season, according to the NWS.

Eight properties were red-tagged as too dangerous for residents to remain, and several structures noticeably creaked and sagged as the waves continued to hit. City officials said they expect the coastal erosion and property damage to worsen on Sunday and throughout the El Niño season.

Still, Venkataraman and his neighbors remained hopeful and focused on action.

“It may be a losing battle,” Venkataraman said, adding he is not ready to give up. “I’m a warrior. I will fight until the bitter end.”

Police officers in cities across the U.S. are quick to extol the virtues of real-time crime centers as a game changer that helps them find missing children, monitor large events from the skies and scope out dangerous scenes before putting an officer in harm's way.

Hundreds of police departments have one of these central hubs, which have existed for years. But many are now being powered with AI software, such as Fusus, from the public-safety technology giant Axon.

Fusus, by Axon's own description, is a "rapidly deployable real-time crime center in the cloud." It functions like the brain of a crime center, synthesizing the data it pulls in and allowing police command centers to watch an entire city from one place.

Flock cameras, the automated license plate readers (ALPRs), have faced intense backlash in recent months amid stories of abuse. Yet privacy experts say they're just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to police surveillance.

"I have been watching the debate about Flock with a little bit of puzzlement," says Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University. "Because real-time crime centers have not just ALPR cameras and sensors, but video analytics and drones and essentially a way to create a visual single-pane-of-glass vision of what's going on in a city, with time machine capabilities where you can go back and investigate crime."

How AI-powered software fuels real-time crime centers

Tools like Axon Fusus, which is a leader in this type of software, also pull in footage and data from police body cameras, law enforcement dashcams, 911 dispatch, gunshot detectors and surveillance cameras, including sometimes those of private businesses that opt in.

Its use is growing fast. In 2024, the technology news site 404 Media reported that just over 100 law enforcement agencies had deployed Fusus, which was then its own company and was acquired by Axon that year. The number of law enforcement agencies using the tool has more than doubled since then, according to Axon.

Police officers in departments that use Fusus told NPR that the tool serves as a time-saver and a force multiplier for their agencies.

"We could put analysts in a room and have them access 40 different systems," says Benjamin Weir, a captain with the Oklahoma City Police Department. "But that slows them down. So the biggest leveraging factor for a real-time information center to be productive is to have software that can incorporate all these things into one usable area."

Quincy Whitner, a lieutenant with the Greenville County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina, says Fusus helped his department find a man who shot a police officer and fled the scene, by combining city surveillance footage with license plate data.

"Instead of having to go to a million different systems, a million different places to find answers, we can get it in one platform in one place somewhat instantaneously," says Whitner.

Privacy concerns when surveillance is easy

But that push-of-a-button mentality is exactly what makes privacy experts nervous.

Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of the Liberty and National Security Program at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, says even a few decades ago, there were more hurdles to overcome when police officers wanted to surveil members of the community. They might have to physically follow someone or do a stakeout. It took time, staffing and resources.

"In addition to all of the things that you would want in place requiring some kind of criminal predicate to launch it, there is just this kind of organic friction that imposes some constraints," she says. "As that friction gets lifted, it becomes easier and easier to do investigations, to look at people and even to pull up broad-scale information."

Police told NPR that they understand those concerns but that the good — the potential for stopping and solving crime — outweighs the bad — the potential for misuse and mass surveillance.

"I understand people's concerns, but if you're not up to no good, we're not looking at you. We are looking at people who are committing crimes," says Michelle Iezzi, deputy director of the Operational Intelligence Division at the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland.

Axon did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But CEO Rick Smith said on the latest earnings call that the company strongly values privacy: "We just have to be thoughtful and understand those concerns and say, 'Look, this is a tool to amplify human ability, not to replace human judgment.'"

But there is broad potential for abuse when a police department is always watching, privacy experts say; surveillance technology can sweep up innocent people by mistake, and it can enable targeting.

"What happens if there is a government that wants to silence a particular group or even a particular person? And you just built the architecture of surveillance that makes that super-easy," says Ferguson, the George Washington University law professor.

Courts are moving slowly in deciding when or if this kind of surveillance crosses a constitutional line. In the meantime, Ferguson says, lawmakers could act by limiting how long data is stored, for instance, mandating regular audits or restricting surveillance near sensitive sites like abortion clinics or immigration courts.

He says those conversations should be happening before a tool ever is used.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Once a year Crenshaw Boulevard comes alive with music, food and celebration at the Taste of Soul Family Festival. What organizers bill as Southern California’s “largest free street festival,” now in its 21st year, takes over nearly three miles between Obama Boulevard and Stocker Street on Saturday, Oct.17.

Come on in, it’s free

Crowds fill Crenshaw Boulevard at Taste of Soul.

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E. Mesiyah McGinnis

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Los Angeles Sentinel

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And “free” is the operative word.

“At Coachella, it's $500 a ticket. At Taste of Soul, you come free,” said Pamela Bakewell with Bakewell Media, the festival's organizer.

Danny J. Bakewell Sr. — chairman of the organization and Pamela’s brother — pitched the festival to then-L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

“He went to him and said, ‘Look, if they can do these things in New Orleans, then why can't we do it in Los Angeles?’”

Tiffany Haddish with Danny J. Bakewell Sr. at Taste of Soul 2025.

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That first festival in 2005 drew about 25,000 people, according to organizers. Now, some 350,000 people attend every year.

A world of vendors

Organizers say the festival has become an economic boost for small businesses in Southern California, featuring over 100 food vendors of serving a variety of cuisines.

A food vendor cooks at Taste of Soul 2018.

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Los Angeles Sentinel

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“It's the biggest event that I do all year,” said Brian McMillan, owner of The Kobbler King in South L.A. “People place orders after the event. They taste the cobbler;  it sets us up for Thanksgiving.”

McMillan has been a vendor at Taste of Soul for 20 years.

Montell Jordan performs on the KJLH Music Stage at Taste of Soul 2025.

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Los Angeles Sentinel

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“You got food from all over. I have a friend from East Africa; his food is some of the best food I've ever had, and it's extremely healthy,” McMillan said.

And plenty more to see

Visitors and staff at the Watts Healthcare tent during Taste of Soul 2025.

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McMillan said he relishes seeing different generations of neighbors and customers come by to say hello and get some cobbler.

“It's like a family reunion, and I think that's very important because you don't see that with too many festivals at all.”

Long Beach is famously surrounded by a breakwater to protect its harbor, but that massive barrier hasn’t been able to shield homes on the city’s Peninsula from hurricane-charged swells recently.

Over the last few weeks, strong waves have repeatedly stripped away sand, broken through a boardwalk bulkhead and threatened to collapse beachside homes by clawing away the sand underneath them. All of this keeps happening in a narrow stretch of homes along the Peninsula, mostly between 62nd and 69th places.

Those few blocks are vulnerable to swells coming from the south because of an opening in the breakwater and jetty that allows boat access to Alamitos Bay.

In order to protect those homes, Long Beach typically builds a sand berm to block waves. When waves rip it away, the breakwater keeps it from washing out to sea, and it instead piles up to the west near downtown (a phenomenon called littoral drift.) The city spends $1 million to $1.5 million a year on trucking that sand back to the Peninsula and rebuilding the beach.

This year, it hasn’t been enough.

El Niño’s warm waters have supercharged high tides. That, combined with hurricane-driven waves coming up from the south, has stripped so much sand away from the Peninsula’s beach that the wooden bulkhead under the coastal boardwalk has been exposed.

At high tide, breakers now slap directly against the wood, repeatedly splintering it.

The city is hoping to soon start a $11.4 million dredging project to gather enough sand to rebuild the beach and protect the boardwalk, but that can’t happen while it’s getting pounded by the surf.

There may be some relief soon. Hurricane season in the eastern Pacific runs from mid-May through November. Hurricanes later in the year are much more likely to form in the western Pacific — as opposed to the southeast — and the federal breakwater that shields Long Beach’s harbor blunts the swells that originate from the west. That’s why much of California’s western coast may still see dangerous waves through the winter, though Long Beach is usually safe.

To bolster the Peninsula’s defenses, Long Beach is now considering a $6.8 million plan to build a rock revetment — a wall of boulders that would sit behind the beach as a backup.

This aerial view of the Peninsula was included in a city report on ways to replenish its sand.

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City of Long Beach

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But for a long-term solution, officials say it may cost $150 million to $350 million for a full habitat and shoreline restoration — funded partly by state mitigation credits.

It’s the kind of project that would take massive amounts of approvals and planning and likely some delays. The city council, for now, has approved $30,000 to look into it further.