Mother Nature versus Revere detailed in storm study

REVERE – Everyone’s heard of the Blizzard of ’78, but how about the earthquake of ’78?That 1.8 magnitude trembler that shook neighborhoods near the Boston line on August 6, 1978 and other acts of nature are detailed in a hazard study conducted by city Planner Frank Stringi and Fire Chief Eugene Doherty and approved by federal emergency officials.The city was required to do the study before it can apply for federal money to pay for emergency preparedness work.Although giant storms like the ’78 blizzard damaged over 1,200 local homes, calamities that wreak havoc in other parts of the world are likely to offer only minor threats locally.Revere faces a moderate risk from earthquakes. Tornados are extremely rare but, as any resident of Point of Pines can attest, winter storms have cut paths of devastation through the city with the report logging 10 involving significant flooding since 1954.The city’s defense against natural threats includes 17 tide gates. The state owns all but two of the structures and four of these need repairs, according to the report.”In general, the tide gates buy time before pumping can begin. They increase storage capacity early in the tidal cycle before the pumps are started,” the report states.The study also outlines problems facing the city in its efforts to protect against natural disasters.”There is mounting pressure to develop small grandfathered lots with the 100 year floodplain which displaces crucial flood storage capacity,” Stringi and Doherty wrote in the report.The report includes a list of construction projects that, if paid for and built, could provide the city with more protection from the elements.The list includes building a seawall along Mills Avenue, cleaning out the ditches along the train tracks near the Garfield School and clearing muck from around the sump in the vicinity of the Bennington Street pump station.The report gives high priority to recommendations for building a Squire Road pump station and another on Taft Street. It calls for repairing tide gates on Winthrop Parkway and increasing the height of the Short Beach sea wall.