Perhaps the nation has forgotten the insightful words of President William McKinley.

"I am more afraid of the West Indian Hurricane," our nation's 25th commander-in-chief said in 1898, during the height of the Spanish-American War, "than I am of the entire Spanish Navy."

Anyone who lives in Southeast Texas knows tropical storms have inflicted more damage on our shores than any battleship or cruiser. A single Category 5 hurricane poses a greater threat to Houston's oil and gas infrastructure than any weapon of war short of a nuclear bomb. Yet something remains broken in the way that our society ascertains this risk of natural disasters, leaving all of us less safe.

Just look at the Arkema plant in Crosby. Employees there were provided with a page-and-a-half emergency response plan for handling bomb threats. The plan for floods, on the other hand, was only one paragraph long, as Chronicle reporters Matt Dempsey and Jacob Carpenter revealed ("Nine Days of Chaos," Page A1, Wednesday).

The plant sits in the 100-year floodplain, and management spilled more ink on terror attacks than rising waters.

So when Harvey struck, on-site staff struggled to deal with a power transformer and backup generators that quickly became submerged. Refrigeration trucks used as emergency storage for volatile organic peroxides succumbed to floodwaters as well, leading to a chemical breakdown that sent 23 people to the hospital.

The company still insists that no amount of planning could have protected its flood-prone site from the storm. That sort of reckless complacency should be criminal after Tax Day and Memorial Day floods. The Harris County Attorney is currently seeking $1 million in civil penalties. You can bet that Arkema would have been prepared if Houston had been hit by terror attacks on an annual basis for the past three years. Something about floods and storms, however, doesn't elicit the same fearful response.

Federal lawmakers risk making Arkema's mistake on a grand scale.

Congress has no difficulty finding $700 billion for the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act - about $80 billion more than last year. Taxpayers remain on the hook for an ongoing global war on terror that costs about $250 million each day. Yet Washington continues to ignore Gov. Greg Abbott's request for a $61 billion infrastructure and buy-out program to protect the state from future storms and floods.

McKinley would not approve.

Seventy lives were lost in Harvey. The storm tore a $200 billion path of destruction across the Gulf Coast. North America's core hub of refineries, chemical plants and pipelines remains vulnerable to the next big storm, putting our entire national security at risk. A mere eight months of military spending could protect Texas from hurricanes and floods for decades to come.

Congress instead prioritizes a plan to buy 90 F-35 fighter jets - a plane that's become the most expensive weapons program in national history despite the fact that it "can't turn, can't climb, can't run," according to a RAND Corporation summary.

No expense is spared to fund the Pentagon. But when it comes to Mother Nature, Congress might as well be waving the white flag of surrender. If lawmakers are serious about protecting the homeland, they need to put down the Tom Clancy novels and turn on the Weather Channel.

Or maybe they should listen to former FEMA Director Michael Brown.

After Hurricane Katrina, he speculated how the government's inadequate response would have been different for a man-made disaster.

"It's my belief that had there been a report [...] that said, yes, we've confirmed that a terrorist has blown up the 17th Street Canal Levee, then everybody would have jumped all over that and been trying to do everything they could," he said in his congressional testimony.

A hurricane, however, failed to shock the Department of Homeland Security into action, allowing thousands to suffer and die. Congress has apparently adopted DHS's post-Katrina mentality as we rebuild from Harvey. Hurricane season begins in little more than six months and the clock is ticking. Perhaps our nation needs a 21st-century update to the McKinley doctrine: "I am more afraid of a Category 5 hurricane striking the heart of the Houston Ship Channel than I am of the entire ISIS leadership."