The City of Boston on Friday tested out removable flood barriers in case of emergency — the same barriers that had just helped keep storm surge from swamping a hospital in Tampa amid the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
Friday was Boston’s first Deployables Day, a training and demonstration event where, under sunny skies, buildings and city workers practiced putting up the temporary flood barriers.
“Extreme weather events like hurricanes and flooding are becoming more intense and more frequent. The City’s priority is to ensure that our residents, neighborhoods, businesses and infrastructure are safe today and in the future. Deployables Day is one more step in building the resilient Boston we need,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement.
See if you live in a hurricane evacuation zone here.
Superstorm Sandy left much of New York underwater. It’s difficult to imagine what would happen if such a storm hit Boston, but NOAH is helping communities visualize the flood risk.
The flood barriers that were put up and stowed away in Boston Friday — the event was scheduled weeks ago, for National Emergency Preparedness Month — are only considered a short-term solution, with the long-term goal being to adapt aging infrastructure to withstand more frequent and stronger threats associated with the changing climate.
“We are in the process of figuring out the steps to get you to be a more resilient community,” Wu said at an event.