Storms stronger than Hurricane Beryl are approaching. Houston is not prepared.

Hurricane Beryl lasted more than a week. We saw it cross the Yucatan Peninsula as a weakened storm, then defy forecasts and come north to hit Texas as a Category 1 storm.

I don’t know about you, but for me, that Category 1 storm was enough. I don’t want to know about a Category 4 or 5 storm, but such storms are increasingly likely in our future, a future that is changing as our climate changes.

Hurricanes have three hazards: wind, rain, and storm surge. Most of the damage from Beryl is due to wind, but a major storm will have aspects of all three. Hurricane Ike was a Category 2 storm with storm surge more typical of a Category 4 storm, leading the National Weather Service to separate hurricane category forecasts (which are based on wind speed) from storm surge forecasts.

When Hurricane Harvey approached the Houston area, many of us learned that it was intensifying rapidly. Storms often get stronger later in their path, leaving less time to prepare for them—and that means many people who should evacuate won’t, thinking the storm won’t be a major one. If Hurricane Ike had made landfall where Beryl did, or even a little further north, it could have killed thousands of people who didn’t evacuate because Ike was “only a Category 2.”

The Houston area learns more with each storm. With Beryl, we managed between 6 and 10 inches of rain, but it tested our capabilities. Storms that bring more rain—storms that look like Allison, Harvey, and Imelda—will overwhelm us. And we know that our future holds storms much stronger than Beryl.

Our new drainage projects have improved the capture and transport of runoff, but the rains we need to prepare for are simply getting heavier. The targets keep shifting. That’s the reality of climate change: the past is no longer a reliable indicator of the future.

I think we could, as a community, learn a few lessons from the insurance industry. The insurance industry takes climate change very seriously. It recognizes the increased risks and changes its policies accordingly. We may not like the outcome, but the fact is that these companies rely on science to guide their decisions.

The private sector has much to offer the public sector, which has traditionally been involved in flood control and community planning. We could consider creative ways to make the most of both sectors.

Houston succeeded because it combined intelligence with private-sector entrepreneurship. Businessman Jesse Jones embodied both characteristics perfectly. After the Great Storm of 1900 devastated Galveston, once Texas’s major port, Jones found a way to finance a ship canal to Houston. During the Great Depression, he brought together the banking leaders of Houston and Galveston, persuaded them to pool their resources, and kept our banks from failing like those in much of the rest of the country.

Jones was not an easy or pleasant message. But in the face of the challenges that came his way, he was able to rally the community. To address climate change, we must now bring all our entrepreneurial spirit and brains together to come up with some of the best plans in the world.

To cope with the heavier rains that await us in the future, we need to change our attitude towards floodplains. We need drainage, but we need to make room for more water to flow through our community.

To achieve this, we would need to remove 50,000 or more homes from flood zones immediately after the flood, rather than offering a buyout years later. We need a cash buffer to buy out flood victims’ homes right after the flood, when they need it most.

Flood plains are danger zones, not development areas. We must treat them with respect.

Major flooding may be our greatest threat. We are not prepared for the coming major floods, which could create the greatest economic and environmental disaster in U.S. history.

We should accept nothing less than a flood control plan that protects Houston and Harris County from Category 5 storms. It is possible, but we will need creative financing to overcome the fact that our primary flood control authority, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has its hands tied. Regulations dating back to the last century limit their ability to handle major storms.

There are paths to solving our problems, but to navigate them we must be honest, follow the best science, and use our creativity, brains, and entrepreneurial spirit.

Jim Blackburn is a professor at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, a professor of environmental law in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University, and an environmental lawyer at the law firm of Blackburn & Carter in Houston.