Natural disasters

The Los Angeles-area wildfires have sparked a negative rating watch for several credits from Fitch Ratings.

With losses expected to be measured in the tens or hundreds of billions, the municipal finance industry begins to take stock of the Los Angeles-area wildfires.

Because of the disaster, income tax filing deadlines for Los Angeles County residents will be delayed to October, muddying the revenue picture for the state.

Trading in Los Angeles credits has become more volatile. An L.A. Department of Water and Power deal slated for Wednesday went day-to-day.

Lifting the SALT cap is one of several thorny issues Republicans hope to iron out as part of a larger reconciliation bill by March.

Early totals on Los Angeles' trio of raging fires appear to vastly surpass devastating blazes experienced by the city over the past decade.

In the long run, Helene and Milton may further drive already rising property insurance costs, while in the short-term S&P placed three utilities on CreditWatch.

Local governments that were in Hurricane Milton's path, however, will face significant credit challenges, Moody's said.

Santa Cruz, on California's coast, was particularly hard hit by flooding in 2023. In addition to the the I-Bank loan, the city secured a federal loan.

Fears of a Hawaiian Electric bankruptcy abated after a settlement was announced that would cap the utility's liability for the Maui wildfire under $2 billion.

Florida's catastrophe fund will weather the storm and shouldn't need reinforcements yet. Two Florida-related sales are still expected next week.

California and Oregon are experiencing yet another record-setting year of wildfires amid increasing uncertainty about FEMA and property insurance backstops.

A rapidly escalating fire season hit the West amid questions about federal funding and insurance.

The short-term sale is an unusual maneuver that allows the CEA to temporarily lower the amount of available capital on its balance sheet.

After the west abutment on the Rapidan Dam partially failed last week, it's up to the Blue Earth County board of commissioners to pursue repair or removal.

Existing California law requires hospitals to be fully operational after a large earthquake by 2030. The Senate has passed a bill to extend the deadline.

The deal, originally planned at $1.5 billion in three maturities, was downsized and restructured and then restructured again into one 10-year bullet maturity.

"We were originally thinking that we would offer five-, seven- and 10-year maturities, with $500 million in each tranche. But we decided today to just offer 5s and 10s — $500 million of five-year bonds and $1 billion of 10-year bonds," said Ben Watkins, Director of Florida's Bond Division.

Hawaii's budget director told a state Senate committee the costs to house people are coming in double what was estimated.

Los Angeles alone reported more than 500 mudslides from a storm that deluged the city for days.