Comment by munificent

> Build much bigger sewer pipes

Great, now in a storm surge (which is the most destructive part of most hurricanes), you have built an effective system for transferring rising seawater into your urban area!

> and river beds.

Great, now you've completely eradicated the delicate ecosystem that was living there and everything that depends on it.

> Build houses higher.

That is how a lot of coastal houses are built. But now you're more susceptible to wind damage, so you're playing a risk balancing game.

Every time a natural disaster shows up, nerds starting inventing solutions. I love the optimistic spirit behind that impulse. But at the same time, people living in those areas, including generations of civil engineers, having been thinking about this a lot longer than us.

The solutions are known but most either have even worse externalities, or simply take a long long time to roll out.

Any solution relating to housing is particularly slow to ship because, surprise, people don't like being forcibly kicked out of their homes. So houses basically only get upgraded at the rate that people die.