Report: 62,000 Mass. homes could face chronic flooding by 2060
Nearly 62,000 homes and $45 billion worth of real estate in Massachusetts reportedly could face chronic flooding from sea level rise in the decades to come.
Nearly 62,000 homes and $45 billion worth of real estate in Massachusetts could face chronic flooding from sea level rise in the decades to come, according to a report out Monday, with the effects being felt first in smaller cities with fewer resources to prepare, the Globe’s Tim Logan reports.
By 2060, more than a quarter of the homes in Hull could flood 26 times or more a year just from high tides, according to data from the Union of Concerned Scientists, and 22 percent of the houses in the North Shore town of Salisbury might be inundated. In Winthrop, Revere, Nahant, and Marshfield, at least 10 percent of homes could routinely be flooded by then – with the flooding spreading to more coastal communities if sea levels continue to rise over the second half of the century.
If that happens, the damage could be widespread, warned the Cambridge-based advocacy group, crashing housing markets and devastating the tax base, which would rob municipalities of the resources needed to cope with higher seas.
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