W.BARNSTABLE- After upwards of 30 homes were damaged by flood waters this winter in the Blish Point neighborhood of West Barnstable, discussions are continuing with state officials in the hopes of providing additional aid to the community.
On Friday, Representative Will Crocker alongside Rep. Tim Whelan met with residents impacted to offer their thoughts on how the state can work on getting money, to help with remediation plans, for future flooding events.
“It’s not something that is obviously going to go away. It is not something that is going to be a once in a few year thing. This is going to happen with climate change, this is going to happen on a much regular basis, and I think these people need to be able to know that their property [and] their investments are going to be safe,” says Crocker.
Representative Whelan says that there are also other factors that are contributing to these homes being threatened; “it’s not just a sea level rise kind of an issue there is a lot of drainage [and] engineering failures that we are seeing here, and we are going to have to work going forward with state officials, interconnected with municipal officials, to get this fixed. There is no excuse for this and we owe these residents a resolution… just as quickly as it can be arranged.”
As it stands now, $50,000 in funds have been approved through amendments to the House version of the state budget to build resilience for the area between Maraspin Creek, and Millway Beach, which were both heavily impacted. The next step is to go before the Senate.
In addition to Blish Point, coastal flooding has also been a severe issue throughout the Cape in recent years, with Sandwich, Chatham, Yarmouth, and Barnstable also seeing the brunt of powerful damage.
BY JOHN BONDAREK- CapeCod.Com News Center
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