The 2017 hurricane season has brought devastation and turmoil to North American cities along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.  Two months after Hurricane Harvey dumped a record 50 inches of rain on Houston, residents are still waiting for inspectors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assess the damage to their homes so they can qualify for disaster relief.

Meanwhile, most of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s 400,000 residents lack electrical power or clean water, a month after Hurricane Maria.  Two-thirds of the world’s largest cities are on a coastline, which makes them extremely vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes, a risk which will only increase with rising sea levels predicted under climate change scenarios.

Ashley Dawson’s new book “Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change” is available now from Verso Press. Ashley Dawson joins Eight O’Clock Buzz host Brian Standing by phone.