Even as the nation experiences a rash of record-breaking storms and floods, a new America THINKS survey from HNTB Corp. shows the public remains unprepared for either, the Kansas City, Mo.-based company says.

"Historically, we do a lot better job reacting to a disaster than preparing for it," says Rob Vining, HNTB's national director of water resources practice. "After Katrina, I thought America had collectively woken up to the flood risks we face, but instead we have continued to hit the snooze button."

In fact, 68 percent of Americans surveyed said they don't recognize that flooding is the biggest natural threat to their homes or properties. Fewer than 1 in 10 have prepared their homes for extensive flooding, and 63 percent said they wouldn't put more money toward their annual taxes to help ensure measures are in place to protect their neighborhoods.

This is despite more than 55 percent of the respondents saying it's likely their area will be hit with an intense storm, hurricane, or flood in the next five years, and 44 percent saying their area is ill-equipped to deal with such an event.

"Improving America's water resource infrastructure is about more than just building bigger levees and dams," Vining says. "We need a coordinated and systematic approach to improving our natural and man-made systems, one that engages the public and works toward a balance between competing environmental, flooding, and water-quality concerns."

Indeed, the biggest challenge may lie with an uninformed public, HTNB says the results show. Forty-five percent of those surveyed think levees in their area will never fail. The American Society of Civil Engineers' most recent Report Card for America's Infrastructure gave the nation's levees a D-minus grade.

As systems age, risk increases. Proposed federal funding for 2012 is below 2008 levels, and public interest wanes once news moves beyond scenes of destruction caused by rising water.

"We must adopt a long-term view toward our water-resource assets," Vining says. "Recent flooding along the lower Mississippi illustrated the value of investments made by our ancestors' in the 1920s through the 1960s. That same dedication should be applied today."

Vining contends modern planning, design, and finance techniques, such as giving rivers room to roam within sparsely populated flood plains and exploring public-private partnerships, can support a more proactive flood-management response.