Beth Pratt, lives high in the Sierra Foothills in Midpines, California. …When Pratt bought her 1house in 1999, she didn’t particularly worry about wildfires—a problem that now plagues her area with disturbing frequency. …Allstate, Pratt’s longtime home insurer, dropped her as a customer in July, she says. …Earlier this year, Allstate and California’s largest insurer, State Farm, announced that they would hold off on writing new policies for homes in the state. …In the past, insurers have generally been able to diversify their own portfolios to balance different risks; historically, insurers that do business across the country could afford a bad year in one or two states. But the math becomes more challenging as disasters proliferate. The cost of reinsurance—essentially, coverage that insurers take out to protect themselves against big losses—has shot upward, in large part because of growing climate risks. [to access the full story, an Atlantic subscription is required]