When that ice forms later, or not at all, storms meet open water instead, building wave energy over longer distances and delivering it directly to shore.⁷
Inland, in Quebec, the same shift changes the timing of water itself. Hydropower systems depend on predictable accumulation and release—snowpack building through winter and melting steadily in spring. When more precipitation arrives as rain, runoff comes earlier and faster, forcing operators to manage variability instead of seasonality.⁸
New England depends in part on that system, and in January 2026 a Hydro-Québec transmission line stopped exporting electricity for roughly two days during a cold snap as Quebec prioritized domestic demand. The U.S. Energy Information Administration described the interruption as a stress test for the region’s winter energy system.⁹
A flooded street is a public works issue. Repeated flooding becomes an insurance issue. Repeated losses and rising repair costs begin to affect how a town borrows.
Moody’s and other rating agencies have begun incorporating climate exposure into municipal credit assessments, noting that repeated infrastructure damage and rising insurance costs can weaken local fiscal positions and, in some cases, contribute to negative outlooks or higher borrowing costs over time.¹²
The Pacific shifts. The storm track follows. Water moves differently. The cost shows up somewhere else—in a premium notice, a bond discussion, or a utility bill.
Which brings the story back to policy, and to the one place where the United States still has leverage before damage becomes debt.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is built to respond to disasters, but just as importantly, to reduce them before they happen. Programs like BRIC—Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities—fund drainage upgrades, flood protection, electrical hardening, relocations from hazard zones, and the unglamorous work that prevents small failures from becoming larger ones.
In 2025, that program was canceled. In 2026, a federal court forced its reinstatement, restoring roughly $1 billion in mitigation funding after billions in projects had been frozen or delayed.¹⁰
The interruption matters more than the headline.
Projects delayed are not neutral. A culvert not upgraded this year fails under next winter’s runoff. A drainage system left undersized becomes a recurring problem instead of a solved one. The cost doesn’t vanish during the pause; it compounds into the next season.
At the same time, staffing reductions—thousands of FEMA departures over the past year—have raised concerns about response capacity, not for a single catastrophic event but for the accumulation of smaller ones that require coordination, reimbursement, and follow-through.¹¹