Mayor Michelle Wu says Boston planning for 'extreme weather events' as effects of climate crisis intensify

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Feb 21, 2025

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BOSTON — Following recent weather disasters across the county, the Boston mayor outlined Thursday how the city is preparing for when more severe heat, coastal flooding, or extreme weather events hit here.

“Over the last few months, our hearts have gone out to the families impacted by some of the worst wildfires in California history, or the recent flooding in Kentucky, or events all across the country and even much closer to home,” said Mayor Michelle Wu at a emergency preparedness press conference Thursday. “Here in Boston, we’re lucky we haven’t experienced events to such an extreme.

“But in the last decade alone,” she continued, “Boston has seen three of the four highest instances of coastal flooding, the largest one day snowfall since 1872 and last year, we experienced two storms that caused flooding on Lewis Street, right here in East Boston.”

Boston is most likely to experience upticks in extreme heat, coastal flooding, intense storm water surges, and the likelihood of “extreme weather events such as bitter cold,” Wu said.

City officials spelled out a wide array of projects emphasizing emergency preparedness and climate resilience throughout Boston, including adding a floodplain administrator to the Inspectional Services Department, designing buildings like community centers as emergency heating and cooling centers for resident, both planting trees and using an urban forestry team to keep them healthy, adding an Office of Coastal Resilience and much more.

Chief of Emergency Preparedness Adrian Jordan also outlined the city’s protocol in the event of an emergency, noting the blue evacuation route signs posted throughout the city, alerts on social media, and city-run alert system.

“Getting the right information to the right people at the right time is one of our top priorities,” said Jordan. “That’s why we encourage everyone to sign up for Alert Boston, our emergency notification system. Through Alert Boston. We can send real time alerts about severe weather, road closures and evacuation orders. The system is integrated with the National Weather Service, so residents can receive automatic weather warnings as well.”

The chief also encouraged residents to get involved with Community Emergency Response Teams, or CERT, to assist in case of disasters.

Wu also addressed the loss of federal funding for climate initiatives under the Trump administration, saying the city has worked over the last months to “codify grants that were awarded into legally binding contracts” and ensure the continued funding possible.

“We don’t need to look that far out into the future to make very effective benefit cost ratio analyzes that these are projects to protect Boston,” said Chief Climate Officer Brian Swett. “Now we are planning for the future, because that’s what we do in Boston.”

Residents can sign up for emergency alerts and information at boston.gov/alert and follow @AlertBoston on social media.

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