Increasingly intense precipitation events made more frequent by climate change will cause more dam failures like those seen in central Michigan this week, experts warned. “A lot of the country’s infrastructure systems were built during a time when … weather events [like those in Michigan this week] were considered rare and didn’t present a significant threat,” said Hiba Baroud, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University told CNBC, “but things have changed. The climate has changed.” Amir AghaKouchak, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Irvine agreed. “We should expect more of these [dam failures] down the road,” he told the New York Times. President Trump declared a state of emergency Thursday, authorizing FEMA to coordinate relief efforts. (Dam vulnerability: CNBC, New York Times $; Disaster declaration: AP; Climate Signals background: Flooding, Extreme precipitation, Storm intensity, Total precipitation)