(Bloomberg View) – The first game of this year's WorldSeries earned a dubious distinction for the highest temperatureever recorded at the Fall Classic.

At 103 degrees, the temperature at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Los Angeleswas far above the previous record of 94 degrees set in Phoenix in2001.

Up the California coast, San Luis Obispo matched the highesttemperature ever recorded in the U.S. so late in the calendar year.This exceptional heat is only one of the ways in which cities areexperiencing climate change.

Too few are prepared for what's in store.

Urban vulnerability

Sea-level rise is another problem. Cape Coral, Florida, thefastest-growing city in the U.S., for example, is also “aprecarious civilization engineered out of a watery wilderness” thatone big storm could wipe off the map. Urban vulnerability inthe face of rising seas and ever-more-intense storms isn't uniqueto Florida, either.

Related: Hurricane storm surge puts 6.9 million homes atrisk costing $1.5 trillion to rebuild

This has led economists at the real estate listing companyZillow to calculate the scope and scale of U.S.properties most at risk from rising seas. By 2100, sea-level risewill threaten more than 1.5 million homes, worth nearly $900billion. The most vulnerable of these (as a percentage of housingstock in urban, suburban and rural areas) are the lowest-pricedhomes in cities, and the most expensive ones in rural areas.

Adapting to threats

Adapting to these threats to America's coasts will requirefinancial support. Through its flood insurance programs, specialcongressional allocations and the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency, the federal government is the ultimatebackstop for communities rebuilding after natural disasters.

As my colleague Christopher Flavelle notes, proposed budget cutsto federal programs and agencies could prove harmful even beforedisaster strikes — by limiting coastal communities' ability toaccess credit markets.

Regardless of proposed budget cuts or policy changes, thegovernment's own data points very clearly to the magnitude of theeffects of weather and climate disasters in the U.S. The National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration keeps a dataset of everybillion-dollar weather and climate disaster since 1980.

This year is on pace to record the highest number so far —even before counting the total costs of hurricanes Harvey, Irma andMaria, and California's wildfires. And while weatherevents come in all types, the vast majority of the damagessustained have been caused by “warm” disasters.

In light of NOAA's data, a recommendation this week from theGovernment AccountabilityOffice on the potential economic effects of climate changeseems modest. The president, the GAO says, “should use informationon the potential economic effects of climate change to helpidentify significant climate risks facing the federal government.”Look at that chart above, and I think we can agree the economicrepercussions are already clear.

While government remains unprepared, corporations increasinglyconsider climate change to be a threat to business as usual. Some1,400 multinational companies now factor a carbon price into theirbusiness plans or will soon, up from 150 companies in 2014,according to the environmental disclosure platform CDP.

The private sector is going long on preparation, but the publicsector is still falling short.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of theeditorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

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The 2 states that suffered the greatestpercentage of catastrophic losses in 2016

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