El Niño takes lives, infrastructure as U.S. storm systems prove ill-prepared

The ongoing super El Niño is projected to bring extreme rainfall to parts of the United States, and the majority of the country’s stormwater infrastructure isn’t ready. Already in New Mexico, September storms killed three people in Navajo Nation, blew out long-standing culverts and caused nine pipe washouts in just 15 miles, Erin Douglas writes for The Washington Post.

The Washington Post reports:

One analysis by Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research group, found that of the nation’s more than 6 million culverts, about two thirds are in states with outdated design standards. (Culverts allow streams to pass beneath roads.) Another analysis by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave stormwater infrastructure in the United States a “D,” in 2025, noting that the need to replace aging infrastructure often outstrips local capacity to do so. 

Many stormwater engineering designs are built for historic rainfall rather than modern-day, climate-change-fueled storms. While upgraded infrastructure lasts longer and requires less maintenance, many multiplicities cannot afford it: replacing culverts can cost millions of dollars.