Six months have passed since the devastating Los Angeles firestorms that leveled the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods.
This week, along the Central Coast, the Madre fire erupted. At only 5% contained, it has already burned over 35,000 acres, making it the largest fire of the year so far.
In Northern California, thunderstorms with lightning strikes have sparked blazes in the Shasta area, just 90 miles from where the 2018 Camp Fire devastated the town of Paradise in one of the most deadly and destructive wildfires in the state’s history.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, this summer, most of California is facing higher-than-normal fire threat levels. Just halfway through the hot, dry season, we’re already 129% above average for the number of wildfires.
Of course, our beautiful state is prone to other types of natural disasters as well.
Frequent small tremors remind us of the history of more serious earthquakes and the threat of future ones due to the shaky fault lines that run throughout California’s foundation.
Climate change is intensifying the atmospheric rivers, which are leading to severe floods and landslides.
To paraphrase Joan Didion, California’s environmental conditions constantly remind us “how close to the edge we are.”
The flip side, of course, is that our state’s abundant, spectacular natural beauty and (mostly) perfect climate make it a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family.
Family law attorneys in California know that when a natural disaster strikes, it can have a serious impact on marriage and divorce. Part of the practice is knowing how to help people navigate those complications and overlapping crises.
Here are three major ways natural disasters can affect marriage and divorce:
- Natural disasters may be hazardous to your marriage. Research on how large-scale catastrophe impacts couples is somewhat sparse and has reached mixed conclusions. Some studies have shown that life-altering disasters bring couples closer together, while others find that intimate relationships suffer in the aftermath.
- Researchers found that in the year following Hurricane Hugo, the marriage rate increased slightly in areas of South Carolina impacted by the storm, then returned to its previous trend of declining marriage rates.
- A 2021 study of married couples that endured Texas’s 2017 Hurricane Harvey found that “spouses experienced a temporary increase in relationship satisfaction immediately after the hurricane but then declined in satisfaction over the following year.”
Part of the challenge in evaluating a disaster’s impact on marriage is that pre-disaster data on the couples may not be available. Research demonstrating that disaster can increase rates of both marriage and divorce suggests that a major catastrophe may magnify the state your relationship is already in. In other words, couples who were feeling satisfied in healthy relationships may become closer through disaster, while partners who were unsatisfied and unsteady pre-disaster may further fall apart. We know that, over time, external stressors like economic challenges, trauma, physical and mental health problems, grief and loss, or major life changes such as moving homes — all of which can be side effects of natural disasters — can strain almost any marriage to the breaking point.
- Custody and visitation disruptions. Natural disasters can create challenges in following your parenting plan: evacuations or displacement due to damage or loss of your home, changes in your child’s school location or schedule, one parent’s environment being safer than the other’s, impeded or unsafe travel that makes exchanges difficult, and so on. Your family’s safety is of utmost importance. It’s important to know, however, that you are legally required to adhere to custody orders to the best of your ability. If there is a drastic change in circumstances or if you believe the other parent is putting your child in harm’s way during a natural disaster, you may need to request that the court make emergency orders. If the disaster has resulted in long-term life changes, you may need to permanently and legally modify your court-ordered parenting agreement. Plan ahead: divorced families who live in vulnerable areas should talk to a lawyer about reassessing custody and visitation arrangements to make provisions for the unexpected.
- Asset division concerns. One of the most obvious ways a natural disaster affects our lives is in the destruction of property — homes, cars, furnishings, art, collectibles, jewelry, personal belongings, and more can be damaged or lost entirely. In California, a community property state, everything acquired during your marriage, both assets and debts, with few exceptions, belongs equally to both partners and will be divided 50/50 in divorce. This includes calamity-related finances such as insurance payouts and the costs of repair or rebuilding. Fair property division relies on accurate assessment, but damage from a natural disaster can make appraisal difficult. Delayed and disputed insurance claims can also hinder the process. Even in the most straightforward divorce, with modest, intact assets, property division often brings conflict and emotional turmoil. So when your shared stuff is damaged by a natural disaster in the middle of divorce proceedings, the process can get exceptionally complicated and drawn out, and tensions run very high.
If you’ve been impacted by recent wildfires or another natural disaster and you’re concerned about how it will affect your marriage, consider seeking the support of a counselor or family therapist. If you’re already going through a divorce, speak with one of the veteran California family law attorneys at SFLG. We are experienced in handling the most complex asset division and custody cases.
By Debra Schoenberg
