Twenty years ago this month, Hurricane Katrina made landfall and exposed a horrifying yet predictable truth: Water kills. The unnerving images of spray-painted pleas for help and families awaiting rescue on rooftops were not only lessons for New Orleans. The devastation also was a warning to every U.S. city built along bays, rivers and low-lying plains.

Metro areas continue to be deeply vulnerable to catastrophic flooding. On this anniversary, local policymakers and city planners should renew their commitment to improving readiness before the next disaster strikes.

The trend lines are sobering. Researchers now document more “rapid intensification” of storms over warm water. Earlier this month, Hurricane Erin intensified over the Atlantic into a monster Category 5 storm, the maximum

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