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Hundreds of anguished Californians who lost their homes in an outbreak of wildfires this week now get to face another burden: dealing with insurers.

Some are almost certain to experience a rude awakening.

Roughly 60 percent of American homes are underinsured by an average of about 20 percent, according to CoreLogic, a company based in Irvine that provides data to home insurers.

That means someone whose house was valued at $500,000, for example, would be short $100,000 on the cost of rebuilding after a disaster.

“It’s a huge problem,” said Amy Bach, executive director at United Policyholders, a San Francisco nonprofit that represents consumers.