Walsh wants update of city’s storm plan
Mayor Martin J. Walsh wants to update Boston’s plans for responding to a storm the magnitude of Harvey — a storm that could cause tens of billions of dollars in damage.
Walsh led a meeting with top emergency officials yesterday — including police Commissioner William B. Evans, fire Commissioner Joseph Finn, EMS chief Jim Hooley and city Emergency Management director Renee Fielding — to re-examine the city’s disaster preparation. He said the meeting was prompted by Tropical Storm Harvey’s devastation of Houston, which has killed 31 people as of last night and destroyed tens of thousands of homes. Walsh said he wants to see officials work on a new plan over the next few months.
“We really need to have serious conversations. If we got hit with a storm like this, if Harvey hit Boston Harbor, we are wiped out as a city,” Walsh told Boston Herald Radio yesterday, noting a hurricane could cause between $50 billion and $60 billion in damages.
“This is a comprehensive preliminary look at where Boston is in the preparedness for a potential Category 5 or 4 or 3 hurricane, or other natural disasters,” Walsh added later. “We are going to be updating our evacuation plan and putting together a 2017 plan for evacuation.”
Walsh said he wants to post new evacuation plans online so residents would be able to plan ahead of any major storm. While parts of the city such as South Boston, East Boston and Dorchester would likely be affected by a hurricane, areas further inland like West Roxbury might not need to evacuate during an emergency, he said.
Jill Valdes Horwood, waterfront policy director for advocacy group Boston Harbor Now, said the city has done a good job of planning so far, but she said her group would like to be involved in further planning in order to make sure Boston’s port economy — which employs 50,000 people and accounts for nearly $5 billion in economic value annually — is also considered.
“We need to focus on the working port and industrial plan as much as neighborhood-specific solutions,” Valdes Horwood said.
And Carlo Boccia, a principal with the Winmill Group — and former city director of Emergency Management, said officials should also make sure to plan for a lengthy recovery period after any disaster, including a strategy to quickly and continually advocate for federal money to help rebuild and pay massive overtime costs.
SCHILLING RAISES AID FOR HARVEY VICTIMS, P. 19.