Yes it’s exactly a reference to current floods and climate extreme events. It’s a bleak reminder that we won’t face the climate crisis equally, and that the one who are causing the most environmental damage are the ones who won’t face any of it’s consequences.
The author is British. Liberalism in its theoretical aspects autonomy, equality of opportunity, freedom of choice, protection of individual rights is a wonderful promise. But the author argue that in our unchecked capitalist environment it’s just a pipe dream which leaves individual vulnerable and exposed to exploitation.