Cambridge Committee Briefed on Nine-Project Regional Coastal Flood Defense Plan

CAMBRIDGE -- March 28, 2024, Cambridge committee hears that nine regional flood interventions could protect 100,000 residents and $60 billion in assets. Department of Public Works Commissioner Kathy Watkins and watershed partners told a City Council committee Thursday that the Amelia Earhart Dam could be overtopped by a 1-percent-probability storm as early as 2040 and the Charles River Dam by roughly 2050, threatening to inundate MIT, Harvard, Kendall Square, and Cambridgeport with saltwater. Julie Wormser of the Mystic River Watershed Association said the Resilient Mystic Collaborative has secured more than $127 million for regional resilience projects, including $13 million in ARPA funds to bring the Amelia Earhart Dam to the point of construction. Cambridge's share of the physical assets at stake is nearly $30 billion. Deputy City Manager Iram Farooq said the city is hiring an emergency management director to develop evacuation scenarios ahead of any major storm event.