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Some Winthrop residents evacuated by front-end loader

Evacuation in Winthrop

Nicholas Agri watched Morton Street in Winthrop turn into a river at high tide this afternoon. Later, the town sent in some heavy machinery to evacuate residents.

Another view of Morton Street, by Julia Wallerce:

Flooded Winthrop Street
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Comments

Misery.

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Probably the best choice - they do well for sledding, too.

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they do well for sledding, too.

Only if you're suicidal. Ain't no way to stop 'em short of hitting something.

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I live on Point Shirley bayside. The Atlantic Ocean is across our street, where other houses often get flooded during high tide. But predictions of "northeast wind" today were not accurate. We on the west side, facing the airport, had mostly a northwest wind which pushed the very frozen bay waters and mini glaciers from the open harbor into yards, even over seawalls that never were breached before. For the weather gurus to be predicting a northerly wind tonight with little worry about the tide due Saturday around one a.m. is very wrong. Our wind is coming due west and is already pushing 6 to 7 foot icebergs against our seawalls, those of us lucky enough to have high sea walls. The flooded yards are so deep with water that the basements are getting flooded, resulting in loss of heat/power to those homes (most) with their boilers, electrical systems and water heaters in their basements. We all need to be monitoring the next two tides, especially anyone who has water/ice still in the yard. The wind is now pushing (continuous gusts of probably 55 m.p.h) much harder than it was at 12:20 p.m. today. We all stand to take a more direct hit, during the next two high tides, than earlier today.

This may also be true of the Fort Banks/Morton Street area in Winthrop. I don't live there, but I can assure you that this storm has hit many of us much more severely than the Blizzard of 1978. No comparison at all. The only difference we can think of is that in '78 the bay was not already one giant iced over inlet, as it has been this past week due to the record breaking frigid temperatures of the past week.

REGARDLESS OF THE REASON: Please someone consider all these facts before predicting that coastal areas have "very little to worry about with the next two tides". Find out what has caused today's disasters in previously "safe areas" (as in 50 plus years) and advise appropriately. We need some facts, not broad assumptions that falsely reassure us. WE ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE HERE.

Please, someone out there, get some news/weather coverage now that our roads are mostly open and especially check out Bayview Avenue, Grandview Avenue, and the 500 to 1100 blocks of Shirley Street leading to Deer Island. None of what I write here has been covered in the news, leading us with little information on how to prepare. THANK YOU!

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I'm really sorry to hear that you had such scary and damaging flooding yesterday. I want you to know that you are asking really good questions and making some fantastic local observations here, and I want to connect you with some of the efforts going on in your community.

The problem is often that emergency managers and front line first respondents are not as much of a part of the conversation around these issues as they should be.

Via Executive Order 569 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has launched the Municipal Vulnerability Program to address key climate adaptation issues on a local scale. This is being rolled into the State Hazard Assessment, which is a FEMA funded effort to address hazards like those you so expertly describe BEFORE they become disasters. I believe that Winthrop is involved in this effort - you need to look through a list of people involved to find out who in your town is coordinating the workshops and planning events.

Winthrop has some excellent climate hazard (read: flooding) and resilience work that has already been done. A very recent report can be found here: https://www.town.winthrop.ma.us/sites/winthropma/files/pages/finalwinthr... Some of the areas that you mention are detailed in the map on that plan.

I would encourage you to contact your town government and see what you might do to become a part of the Resilient Winthrop efforts to prevent more (and worse) flooding than what you witnessed yesterday. Your local knowledge of weather and topographic conditions would be an asset.

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I started to write this comment: "Can drivers really not tell when they are about to enter a flooded place ?" Then I remembered a time years ago when taking a taxi ride through Braintree at 4 AM and we came to an obviously deeply flooded street. The driver stopped and I told him I had time and for him to back up and go down the next block. Just when I thought he was about to do as I asked, he said something like it's OK, I don't own the cab, and gunned it, the worst possible course of action in the situation. Lady luck, or maybe the engineering brain behind the design of that gently used 15 year old state cruiser, smiled on us and we continued on.

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