Newburyport Commuter Rail surrounded by near-record sea levels in Rumney Marsh, December 2023 (Credit Loretta LaCentra)
Statement by Julie Wormser, Senior Policy Advisor
The Healey Administration is setting the pace for the entire nation in moving to a whole-of-government approach to climate change, including a focus on updated building codes, increasing funding and financing, and a focus on protecting the people and resources that most need public support. This will make an enormous difference here in the Mystic River Watershed, where we have been depending on private grants to provide the regional support communities need to tackle climate challenges at a regional scale.
Some of the critical framework the ResilientMass Plan creates includes:
Creating an office of Climate Science so decisions are based on the best available climate projections;
Focusing on heat safety especially in public housing, low-income BIPOC neighborhoods and DCR parks;
Developing a statewide floodplain management plan to help address increasingly intense and unpredictable rainfall;
Developing a coastal resilience strategy across 78 communities to manage harm from increased storms and sea level rise.
Massachusetts is a blizzard culture. We are not yet a flooding or heat wave culture. The ResilientMass Plan is a major step forward by the State to prepare governments, businesses, and residents to manage these emerging weather events with the same awareness and effective response as we already have in place for winter storms.
For more information: https://mass.gov/news/healey-driscoll-administration-releases-readiness-plan-to-protect-against-extreme-weather
