Evacuation orders have been lifted this weekend in the town devastated by deadly wildfires more than five weeks ago. Residents were allowed to return homes to see what was left. Elaine Quijano reports.

With schools damaged or destroyed by the Camp fire, many children will head to unfamiliar locations next week
Just before the Camp fire came upon Paradise, Jori Krulder, an English teacher, was at the town’s high school.
She spent the morning of 8 November in her classroom at Paradise high – and it was there Krulder and her students first saw the ash and leaves raining down.

The administration tried to bury the assessment, but as residents flee wildfires and wade through flooded streets, let’s hope decision-makers get the message
Talk about cognitive dissonance. Just two days before 13 federal agencies released a report laying out the devastating human and economic toll that climate change already is taking in the United States, Donald Trump tweeted: “Whatever happened to global warming?” The tweet was based on a spurt of cold weather in the north-east, never mind that the rest of the world was experiencing higher than normal temperatures.
The administration was so concerned about what the report, called the National Climate Assessment (NCA), would reveal – including the fact that the president’s thinking on climate change is hopelessly flawed – that it chose to , hoping no one would pay attention. A member of Trump’s transition team, Steven Milloy, was candid about this strategy, saying: “Do it on a day when nobody cares, and hope it gets swept away by the next day’s news.” Fortunately for the Earth and its residents, news coverage about the report continued over the weekend and into the following week.
Ken Kimmell is the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists and the former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environment. Brenda Ekwurzel is the director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists

Insurers may exclude this type of catastrophe from standard home insurance policies, like they exclude floods

Insurance claims from the recent spate of California wildfires, including one ranked as the most deadly and destructive in state history, have topped $9 billion and are expected to grow, the state insurance commissioner reported on Wednesday.

Although the preliminary total does not exceed last year’s record $11.8 billion payments after blazes ripped through California’s wine country, the insurance commissioner said it will likely rise.

State and federal authorities estimated Tuesday that it will cost at least $3 billion to clear debris from 19,000 homes and businesses destroyed by three California wildfires last month.

Insurance claims from the recent spate of California wildfires, including one ranked as the most deadly and destructive in state history, have topped $9 billion and are expected to grow, the state insurance commissioner reported on Wednesday.

Insurance claims from last month's California wildfires already are at $9 billion and expected to increase, the state's insurance commissioner announced Wednesday.

The Latest on California wildfires all times local): 10:33 a.m.