Projo — Collapsed roads, flooded basements, submerged cars: Flood risk growing in New England

A road in Portsmouth, Rhode Island last month due to flooding after Hurricane Ida. Scott Barrett / Newport Daily News

Oct 11, 2021

By Hadley Barndollar — If a major flood happened tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of homes, commercial buildings, roads and critical infrastructure across New England are at risk of damage, according to a new report by the First Street Foundation. And the dangers are only expected to grow over the next 30 years. 

First Street's "Infrastructure on the Brink" report, released Oct. 11, is thought to be the first ever nationwide assessment of flooding vulnerability. The report looks at how flooding impacts society as a whole, gauging not only risk for homes and businesses, but also roads and critical infrastructure, like hospitals and power plants, and social infrastructure, like schools and churches. 

The report analyzes "operational risk," which First Street defines as when a structure is flooded to the point where it can no longer function as intended or becomes unsafe.

Matthew Eby, executive director of the First Street Foundation, said the numbers "just kind of blew us away." According to the report, 25% of the nation's critical infrastructure is currently at risk of becoming inoperable because of flooding.

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