Poplar Park

Poplar Park is a housing development for elderly residents in Gloucester. The development includes seventy-six one-bedroom apartments built by the Gloucester Housing Authority (GHA) in the 1960s. The development is one of eight affordable and elderly housing developments operated by the Gloucester Housing Authority on Cape Ann.^{1 2}

Poplar Park is located within the Mill River flood area directly downstream of the Babson Reservoir Dam. It was evacuated in 2006 due to the risk of the dam overflowing or collapsing.² Despite rehabilitation improvements, the Babson Reservoir Dam is still considered a high potential hazard.³

Elderly residents are particularly at risk if communications systems fail during the Great Storm.⁴ To protect residents, Poplar Park is equipped with emergency generators in the community buildings, where residents could cluster in the event of a large storm.⁵ If these generators flood, residents will lose contact with emergency services. While Poplar Park is located close to Addison Gilbert Hospital, a critical resource for any persons injured during a storm event, the roadway leading to the hospital (Poplar Street) is at risk of flooding from Route 128 to Maplewood Avenue.⁶ This could strand residents at Poplar Park without a safe evacuation route and at a great risk of major flooding. If the Babson Reservoir overtops, it will spill floodwaters at high speeds down the Mill River floodplain, inundating emergency equipment at the nearby Public Works compound that the residents of Poplar Park, and Gloucester citizens more broadly, will rely on during and in the aftermath of a great storm.