The Diva was watching Nightly Business News on May 30th and was especially interested in a feature they did about potential flooding in Boston harbor and its effects on current and planned real estate development in that area. [Personal note: the Diva is from the Boston area and her dad owned a store in the harbor area.]

I was told by a Boston-based friend that recently there has been extensive news coverage regarding a proposed flood barrier costing over $12 billion dollars, which will not be fully completed until 2050. That is a long time to wait, and one can only wonder if a barrier will in fact solve the Boston Harbor inundation problem due to sea level rise.

I was told that Boston’s 2015 Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan did not include the proposed flood barrier,  but preferred natural shoreline solutions which are much less expensive to implement on a quicker timeline.

For those interested in the Boston mitigation situation, which is probably a bellweather for other major eastern coastal cities, here are several news articles:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/massachusetts/articles/2018-05-30/report-harbor-barrier-could-take-30-years-and-12b-to-build

 http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/05/30/boston-harbor-barrier-flooding-umass-study
 
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/05/29/the-next-big-dig-umass-study-warns-boston-harbor-barrier-not-worth-cost-effort/BdEjVDgNNucNM8gP1tlZ4O/story.html
 
http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/editorials/2018/05/editorial_costly_plans_wrong_way_to_solve_coastal_flooding
 
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/30/report-boston-harbor-barrier-could-take-30-years-cost-12b.html
 
http://www.newburyportnews.com/news/regional_news/report-boston-harbor-barrier-doesn-t-make-sense-to-prevent/article_20597391-5745-5a16-a5cc-875529c7f146.html