One year. That's all we've got.

Centuries of experience have made the Dutch into global experts on flood management, and in a meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board this week, three representatives from the Netherlands laid out in stark terms the truncated timeline that any city faces in responding to a natural disaster.

"You have a moment, you have this moment, and we ask people: So how long is this moment?" said Dale Morris, Coordinator for Water at the Royal Netherlands Embassy. His answer: "You have a year."

One year to respond to Hurricane Harvey. One year to harness the solidarity and suffering, and start investing in the resilience Houston needs to survive the next storm. Because the storm is coming, and we're not prepared.

During a symposium held at the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday, a standing-room-only audience of more than 500 heard local leaders and experts list our must-build projects.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, a Republican, pointed to a third reservoir west of Houston, bayou improvements and retrofitting Lake Conroe and Lake Houston into flood-control apparatuses.

State Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University, talked about dredging the Addicks and Barker reservoirs and building site-specific water retention projects.

Houston recovery czar Marvin Odum and Harris County meteorologist Jeff Lindner both emphasized the need for a coastal spine and storm-surge protection.

Those projects continue to go ignored by the federal government. We're three months into the Harvey recovery and Congress has yet to allocate any infrastructure funding. The recently proposed $44 billion recovery bill doesn't guarantee a single cent for flood prevention.

"There's virtually nothing right now for dikes, dams, spines, reservoirs or Corps of Engineers, etc.," former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who is lending her post-Katrina expertise to the city, said at the event.

Things don't get better when you look beyond infrastructure and focus on the personal impact of Harvey. Nearly 75 percent of Hurricane Harvey survivors had their FEMA requests denied, according to a recently released survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation.

An army of volunteers can't build the next seawall or dig another reservoir. Only the government has the power and resources to keep our region safe from the next flood. Yet Washington seems to wish that we would just go away, that our concerns would simply drain off or evaporate like some inconvenient puddle.

Make no mistake: The whole nation better start worrying if Houston doesn't receive federal funding for flood infrastructure.

Farmers in Kentucky, tech workers in Silicon Valley and suburban commuters in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, all should anticipate a kick to their pocketbooks - and gas tanks - if we fail to seize on this opportunity for action.

As Morris put it: "I get mad that when you guys flood, my gas prices go up."

Houston sits at our nation's energy nexus. Our pipelines, storage tanks and refineries sit directly in the path of a storm surge. Even if the oil and gas infrastructure itself remains safe, the whole system relies on plant workers, traders and corporate employees. When they can't get to work because of flooded streets or ruined homes, the system shuts down.

"If Texas City and all these storage facilities and refining plants - you saw what happened in Port Arthur - if all that goes off-line for too long, there's a huge national security issue - economic and national security issue," Morris said.

The calendar pages are falling to the floor and with each passing day we lose the political momentum necessary to protect our city and our region. The one-year countdown began when the first raindrop hit Buffalo Bayou, and we're already a quarter of the way done. By the time kids line up for the next school year, and the Astros begin another pennant run, and candidates start turning out the vote for the 2018 midterms, it will already have been too late.

We have one year to set things right after Harvey. And right now, we're on a timeline for failure.