LYNN — The City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve a new five-year Hazard Mitigation Plan, already approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that expands the city’s mitigation efforts beyond flooding, brush fires, earthquakes, and extreme weather conditions and into combating the effects of climate change.
At the meeting, Metropolitan Area Planning Council Senior Environmental Planner Van Du and Principal Planner Aaron Clausen presented the findings of a 2019 Lynn Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness workshop that showed that by 2030, 88 Lynn homes would be at risk for flooding due to the rise of sea levels.
Additionally, Vu said that by 2030, flooding due to sea level rise is estimated to cause between $1.2 million and $5.7 million in damages.
“Something to keep in mind as we think about mitigation measures to be included, and thinking about the projected sea level rise is the social as well as the financial impacts on Lynn residents and the City,” Vu said.
Vu also said that those at the highest risk of flooding damages due to projected sea level rise are low-income households and other particularly vulnerable groups.
“Of course, as part of the analysis, we also take into consideration our different populations … the elders, the younger children, pregnant women, etc. For those in the moderate or low income areas, financial difficulty is a real issue for those impacted by climate,” Vu said.
Clausen said that this year’s Hazard Mitigation Plan will be the first to address and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
“The process of developing the Hazard Mitigation Plan, as we stated in the meeting, is critical to be eligible for grant funds, to implement improvements within the city, and to make us more resilient to these natural hazards,” Clausen said.
Clausen said that while former Hazard Mitigation Plans have been reactive to the effects of climate change, this one will be the first to plan ahead proactively to combat negative climate impacts.
“The benefit of this process is it does consider the effects of climate change; whereas, in the past, it sort of looked back. Now we’re also looking more into the future and considering that while we’re developing strategy,” Clausen said.
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
