Heatwaves kill more Americans than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods
Hurricanes and floods do far more infrastructure damage on large scales (tornado effects being more localized) than extreme heatwaves do, however - and decaying infrastructure is a huge problem across much of the United States.<p>Why exactly the USA has such a huge infrastructure problem is debatable.  Maybe it's the concentration of wealth and political power in fewer locations, i.e. some regions of the West and East Coasts?  Maybe it's too much money being earmarked by Congress to military-industrial projects in their home districts, leaving little for things like rebuilding water supply systems, railroads and bridges, improved electricity grids, etc.?  A decreased overall tax base due to a steep reduction in tax rates (particularly on the wealthiest) since the 1960s?  Financialization of the economy and a resulting lack of engineering expertise and interest in infrastructure development?<p>As far as infrastructure for heat waves, termite-mound-inspired architecture would be the way to go.  Build bunkers with large capacity that people can retreat to, with built-in cooling mechanisms.<p><a href="https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/termite-mounds-could-inspire-new-ideas-for-sustainable-building-ventilation/" rel="nofollow">https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/termite-mounds-could-inspire-n...</a><p>> "The team’s observations show that thin, outer channels of the mound heat up rapidly during the day when compared to the deeper tunnels in the mound, which causes air to circulate in a closed-loop convection cell. During the day, air moves up along the outer channels and down the center. At night, the flow is reversed. This reversal flushes out the carbon dioxide from deep inside the mound, and the gas then diffuses through the porous walls."