Raymond Street

Raymond Street is a primarily residential street in east Manchester-by-the-Sea that borders the Magnolia neighborhood in Gloucester. Its median home prices are more affordable than other areas in town.^{1 2} The entire street chronically floods; it is located within the base floodplain, reflecting areas within FEMA’s one-hundred-year base flood elevation.³ In 2002, the town constructed Surf Pond on the site of an old restaurant to to alleviate flooding by decreasing impervious surfaces along the street.⁴ This acupunctural intervention, however, is not enough.

Clark Pond, an emergent tidal wetland and recreational area owned by the Trustees of Reservations, is located on Raymond Street. The pond is fed from wetlands in Magnolia that drain under Raymond Street and is inundated during spring rains and high seasonal tides, flooding the storm drain system that drains the residences along Raymond Street.^{5 6}

There are seven repetitive loss structures on Raymond Street. These structures are defined as properties where the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has paid two or more claims of one thousand dollars or more in a ten-year period since 1978.⁷ Raymond Street highlights the risks of building in flood-prone areas; yet these are often areas where people with relatively lower income tend to live, as the land was often historically cheaper to build on.

The Great Storm will exacerbate the existing flooding problem and septic systems will be overwhelmed, spilling into the wetlands and ocean.⁸ Raymond Street will be cut off from Route 127, a critical evacuation route, posing a public safety risk for police and fire teams that are not able to access anyone stranded against the surge. Additional homes will be lost; the repetitive loss structures may be built again, subsidized by taxpayers, while families that cannot afford to rebuild will be forced out of Manchester-by-the-Sea.