On the human side of risk, we should as a society embrace the fact that how and where we build our homes, plant our crops, construct our roads and bridges, and locate our schools and industries can provide resilience and safety rather than invite calamity. When rivers overtop their banks with floodwaters, for instance, does the water flow into wide-open flood plains and city streets with good drainage, or are those flood plains paved over and the drainage clogged? Consider that while the Texas Medical Center was able to maintain continuous care for its patients, thanks to dozens of floodgates and aboveground generators, the hospital became largely inaccessible when surrounding streets turned into rivers.

We don’t have to be sitting ducks. For the types of flooding seen this week, the options start with individual and collective actions that make us safer for tomorrow’s storm. To protect future generations as the climate changes, we also need to stretch to more challenging, longer-term efforts.

We can take actions today that will make us more prepared, no matter what tomorrow holds. People can elevate power outlets in their homes, know their evacuation zone and have an emergency plan. Buildings can be raised and designed to resist hurricane-force winds. Such methods are tested and known to save lives and money.

But even basic measures require commitment and foresight. In Florida, stringent building codes adopted after Hurricane Andrew are in danger of being weakened, which would make houses cheaper to build, yet vulnerable. As floods fade from memory, holding on to the lessons learned takes diligence when short-term gains push us in the other direction.

There are also ways we can better unleash market forces to shape who and what are exposed. One mechanism for doing so, the National Flood Insurance Program, is billions of dollars in debt and ripe for reform. Flood insurance premiums signal risk to potential homeowners and promote smart development, but they must reflect true risk to work. With rising seas and shifting rainfall, risk is a moving target. New York City took the unusual step of developing two flood risk maps, one for current sea levels and one for future sea levels. This kind of proactive thinking empowers households and businesses to be forward-looking, cognizant of changes to come.

Long-term climate change will necessitate more creative solutions. For example, one obvious yet controversial way to reduce risk is simply moving out of harm’s way. Hundreds of local governments in the United States, from Harris County, Tex., to Fairbanks, Alaska, have exercised this option already, buying up properties that have repeatedly been flooded and restoring the land to open space.