AS THE NATION enters hurricane season, Massachusetts is one of a handful of states on the East Coast facing the greatest financial risk because of the heavy concentration of business activity in hurricane flood zones.
According to a report released Wednesday by Moody’s Investor Service, total wages in Massachusetts flood zone areas during the third quarter of 2018 were $12 billion, the third highest amount among the 18 states along the East and Gulf coasts. Only New York and Florida were higher.
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About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
The Massachusetts economy would be extremely vulnerable to flooding disruptions. Wages within flood zones in Massachusetts represented a fifth of the entire state’s wages, according to Moody’s. Wages within flood zones in Suffolk County, where Boston is located, totaled $7.5 million, or about 12.4 percent of the state’s overall wages.
Only Louisiana was at greater risk. In that state, 32 percent of the state’s wages were earned within hurricane flood zones.
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