Climate Lab is a Seattle Times initiative that explores the effects of climate change in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The project is funded in part by The Bullitt Foundation, CO2 Foundation, Jim and Birte Falconer, Mike and Becky Hughes, Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Martin-Fabert Foundation, Craig McKibben and Sarah Merner, Mary Snapp and Spencer Frazer, University of Washington, Walker Family Foundation and Kristi and Tom Weir, and its fiscal sponsor is the Seattle Foundation. Millions of dollars in state, federal and insurance payouts are trickling out to people still recovering from the severe floods in December that devastated Western Washington. So far, nearly $28 million has been handed out to victims of the floods, which tore through two levees in King County. That’s a fraction of the damage wrought on people and families across the region . But the total amount of destruction remains unclear.…