NAHANT — Public-safety officials, including the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s new director, Dawn Brantley, gathered with residents at Town Hall Tuesday afternoon to discuss how the town is preparing for potential natural disasters.
In an opening presentation, Nahant Emergency Management outlined the town’s goal of creating a Community Emergency Response Team in the event that a flood, hurricane, or other natural disaster hits the town. NEM Assistant Director Michael Halley said that given Nahant’s size and the fact that the town is surrounded by water, residents will ultimately have to fend for themselves in the event of an emergency.
“It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when we get a devastating storm. It’s going to impact the entire area. There’s no magic button at the police station that says ‘mutual aid’ and when you hit it, all these guys parachute out of the skies with supplies and say ‘We’re here to help,’ ” Halley said. “It’s not going to be Nahant Police, Fire, or emergency response that’s going to save the town of Nahant, it’s going to be the people in the town who are going to save the town.”
Halley said NEM recently secured $5,000 in grant funds to teach a 20-hour emergency-preparedness certification class in an effort to develop a community-response team. He added that although NEM will run a shelter at the Johnson School in the event of an emergency, it will likely take time before federal or state help comes to the rescue, forcing residents to do their part to stay safe.
“We will get help from MEMA or FEMA, but I’ve attended a lot of training over the years, and it’s just ‘We will help you all, but you need to help yourselves,’ and the only way to do that is to get the community involved,” Halley said.
In 2018, a nor’easter flooded the town, blocking Nahant Road, creating a 50-foot debris pile on Castle Road, and causing more than $2 million in damage. NEM Assistant Director Carl Maccario said that during a Category 3 hurricane, the causeway would be blocked off, isolating Nahant from the rest of Massachusetts.
Maccario also suggested residents prepare an emergency kit supplied with essentials such as batteries, food, important documents, and medications.
Applauding the town’s efforts toward emergency preparedness, Brantley said the creation of its own CERT will play a large role in Nahant’s ability to withstand a disaster. She said climate change will impact the frequency and severity of potential storms in the region.
“These storms aren’t going to become less frequent or less devastating,” Brantley said. “We have the most rapidly warming waters on the globe, and what feeds a hurricane or tropical storm? Warm water.”
Brantley added that the summer brought an unusual quantity of wildfires, heat waves, and severe storms to Massachusetts. She said in only five weeks this summer, the Commonwealth was hit with eight tornadoes. She added that sea-level rise also increases the risk of severe storms, and that Nahant should invest in coastal-resilience infrastructure to protect it from flooding.
Since 2018, Town Administrator Tony Barletta said Nahant has allocated more than $1 million toward climate-resilience preparedness studies, and has slightly increased its operational budget, allowing the town to purchase equipment such as generators and emergency vehicles.
