Miles Memorial Hospital, just off the Bristol Road, in Damariscotta, was the site of the delivery of the report prepared by the Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission early this afternoon.  The recipient of the report was Governor Janet T. Mills (D), who established the 24 member Commission a year ago.  The Commission was tasked with preparing Maine’s communities, infrastructure and economy for increasinly frequent and severe storms – like those that caused an estimated $90 million damage to public infrastructure and untold damage to homes and businesses over the last two years.

Miles Memorial Hospital is completing a significant infrastructure improvement project with the town to address chronic flooding to its primary access road during storms.

The Commission’s Plan is organized around three pillars:  Strenghtening infrastructure and reducing disaster risk; improving disaster preparedness response and rebuilding; and sustaining Maine’s resilience momentum through strategic investments.

The Plan recommends that the new State Resilience Office establilshed under LD 1 track and report progress on the Plan.  Starting on May 12, this Office will be led by Brian Ambrete, who was instrumental in developing the Plan as senior climate resilience coordinator in the Governor’s office of Policy Innovation and the Future.

“In Maine, we no longer know the storms of yesterday.  Storms are now more frequent and dangerous, flooding our homes and businesses, washing out our roads and bridges and threatening the health of our people and economy,” said Governor Mills.  “The changes to our weather and our climate are harming people, communities and businesses across the state.  We must prevent as much damage as possible and be ready to quickly recover when storms take their toll.  I welcome the Commission’s “Plan for Infrastructure Resilience” and thank them all for their hard work.  This Plan will guide efforts in the years to come to protect this great state we call home.”