2025’s disaster losses hit $80 billion in just 6 months.
That’s double the 10-year average.
Here’s what changed:
2001: The worst terrorist attack in US history.
- Within 2 months, America created the TSA from scratch.
- Hurricane Katrina hits in 2005. We built a $14.5 billion hurricane protection system.
For thousands of years, this was humanity’s superpower: adapt when disaster strikes.
But something changed in the past decade. We stopped adapting.
- Instead of building solutions, we argue about whose fault it is.
- Instead of clearing fuel, we blame forest management.
- Instead of taking action, we wait for someone else to fix the problem.
- We developed what’s called “optimism bias.” We convince ourselves that disasters won’t happen to us personally.
January 2025. Los Angeles burns.
- $40 billion in damage. 16,000+ structures destroyed.
- The response? Finger-pointing.
Here’s the brutal reality:
- Fire is simple physics. Fuel + heat + oxygen = fire. Remove any element, no fire.
- But instead of removing fuel, we’re having political debates while $40 billion burns.
I’ve spent my career in catastrophe insurance. Built companies achieving less than 2% loss ratios with 94% model accuracy.
The math is simple: spend $10 today to prevent losing $100 tomorrow.
Nevada County, California proves this works. 107 Firewise Communities. $109 million invested in fire-resilient landscaping since 2007. After Paradise was destroyed in 2018, they formed 20 new Firewise Communities in 2024. Their secret? They actually did the work.
Here’s the hard truth:
- No one’s coming to rescue you.
- Not the government. Not insurance companies. Not fire departments.
- The only solution is a ground-up movement of people saving themselves.
RockRose Risk helped a commercial property owner save $446K annually while securing their $110M property through wildfire mitigation.
Everyone wins when you prevent disasters instead of just paying for them.
The choice is simple.
Keep arguing while paying skyrocketing premiums. Or adapt like humans always have.
Article by:
Andrew Engler
CEO – RockRose Risk
rockroserisk.com
To read more on this please click on the link below:
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2025/08/06/834711.htm
