Boston narrowly dodged disaster when Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, but Atlantic City, New York City, and many other communities were not so lucky. Dozens of people lost their lives. It also caused tens of billions of dollars in damage — already making it the most costly weather event in United States history.
The storm surge at the iconic Battery Park in New York reached 13 feet — three feet higher than ever before. In Boston, such a surge would have caused similar damage, with flooded subways and tunnels, Back Bay, and waterfront streets turned into lakes, and a tremendous human and economic toll.
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This is all very well, but it is also idiotic for just the City of Boston to attempt to deal with a Sandy-level storm. There are at least five municipalities, Nahant, Revere, Winthrop, Hull and Quincy that would protect Boston if 10 or 12 foot storm surges threatened South Station, the North End and Dorchester. Evidently, a city commission hailed by Mayor Mumbles Menino and intellectuals like Michael Mooney seek to ignore and sacrifice those five cities/towns just to save Boston's businesses and residences. There is no mention in Mooney's thinkpiece of having the state start a proposal to seek some kind of protection for those outlying barrier beaches, islands and peninsulas. This form of Mumbles Menino/Michael Mooney advocay of go it alone to protect the capitaol is unacceptable unless the state is prepared to offer the rest of living in the five protective municipalities severe tax and services compensation. And you can bet that a state administration so rife with corruption and who you know political hackdom is unlikely to offer such for cooperation by the smaller communities. Maybe the five should get together, dump the political hacks that reside within their borders if no help is forthcoming from those politicians and seek ways to serve themselves and each other.