In the northern Indian city of Muradabad, a rain-saturated building collapsed after days of monsoon downpour, tearing through power lines and transforming a street into a hazard zone. What might have been a catastrophe was averted by the quiet vigilance of local authorities who, reading the cracks in the structure as a warning, evacuated residents before the walls gave way. The event is a small but telling chapter in a longer story about the fragility of urban infrastructure when confronted by the relentless pressure of extreme weather — and about how much depends on whether someone is watchin