That’s a comment from one East Boston resident, regarding the deployable flood wall designed to go under the Sumner Street overpass.
On September 8, 2018, we (the Friends of East Boston Greenway) positioned ourselves, with some reusable grocery bags, on the Sumner Street overpass. It was the Zumix block party day so the foot traffic was unusually heavy. We chatted folks up as they were returning from the party and were therefore in a good mood 🙂
One of the topics we brought up is the vulnerability of the Greenway due to coastal flooding. According to the city of Boston’s Climate Ready East Boston report, the Greenway is one of the high impact channels to coastal flooding, as it can bring the water into the neighborhood.
One concrete action that the city has already taken, in order to mitigate the Greenway flood risk, is purchase and test a deployable flood wall to go on the Greenway under the Sumner Street overpass. This is how it will work: If and when there is a forecast of heavy enough coastal flooding from storm surge to flood the Greenway, city staff will deploy the flood wall. At that point this stretch of the Greenway will be unusable. Once the flood drains or is pumped, the wall will be dismantled and put away, and the Greenway is back in use.
By the way, except for one person, who happens to work for a consulting firm doing climate resilience, nobody we spoke to — easily a 100 people — knew about the flood wall. Once people learned about it though, they had a variety of responses:
- “I hope it doesn’t stop there.”
This is in recognition of the fact that the Greenway isn’t the only vulnerable portion of East Boston, given that East Boston is practically an island. This was the sentiment of most of the respondents.
- “What about us?”
This response came from people on the wet side of the flood wall. For starters, their concern is simply that the flood wall does not help them. Moreover, they wondered if the flood wall increases their risk.
Jan 4, 2018 Coastal Flooding (high tide plus storm surge) leading to the Greenway
Extreme Precipitation
Another form of What about us? comes from those who are not subject to coastal flooding due to storm surges, but are vulnerable to extreme precipitation. The hills of East Boston, for example, are subject to mudslides when there is too much rain for the ground to handle. Mudslides qualify as flood. People living on hills must have flood insurance in order to cover damage due to mudslides.
A mudslide in the Orient Heights neighborhood of East Boston following an extreme precipitation event in September 2017 (Source unknown — please inform FoEBG if you are the photographer).
What do Orient Heights and East Boston Greenway have in common? This couple knows it’s the increasing impact of climate change.
The Greenway has experienced severe flooding due to rain as well. It was particularly exacerbated when silt carried into drainage pipes blocked the pipes permanently. The city had to do a bypass surgery of sorts (with new pipes) in order to allow drainage to happen.
The East Boston Greenway has experienced severe storm flooding in the past. This is from 2010. (Source unknown — please inform FoEBG if you are the photographer)
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please contact the FoEBG.
Friends of the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway 