Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida just as the state put historic amounts of money into climate resilience.

When Hurricane Ian devastated Florida’s southwest coast in the fall of 2022, infrastructure hardening against future hurricanes had only just begun.

When Hurricane Ian, a powerful category four storm – nearly a five – blasted across southwest Florida, it cut off power and left the coast and some inland communities with more than 125 deaths, a desolate landscape choked with debris from shattered buildings, and water polluted by diesel fuel, sewage and toxic chemicals – posing myriad health risks. South Florida rests on “porous rocks,” and rising water emerges from underground, slowing the draining of excess rain and storm surge and posing further vulnerabilities.

When Ian arrived, Florida and the US federal government were already investing billions to reinforce the state’s defenses and infrastructure and render it more...