ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The calming waves in Annapolis are part of what makes it so special.
It can also be a great danger - with the ever-present threat of floods and increasingly extreme storms.
In that city, Mayor Gavin Buckley joined a Tuesday night panel - along with Edmonston Mayor Tracy Gant and Bladensburg Mayor Kesha James - on local governments addressing a changing climate.
"When is the next Isabel going to come? Is there going to be a full moon over Norfolk? Is the wind going to be spinning this way or spinning that way? Those are things we think about every hurricane season," Buckley told WMAR.
Buckley tells WMAR one of the ways their city can prepare: readying the popular and flood-prone City Dock for a rising Chesapeake Bay.
"That solution is to raise City Dock about six extra feet, and then build a series of kind of barriers and flip gates and different things."
Mayors on the panel hope local solutions can chip away at environmental problems and reduce inequities.
Jana Davis is the president of the Chesapeake Bay Trust, a nonprofit encouraging the bay's environmental health. Their building near the bay hosted the crowd.
Davis believes things on the bay are getting better.
"It’s a long, hard problem to solve, and it’s going to take a lot of resources and a lot of time and effort - but I’m really heartened that we are turning a corner and we are seeing improvements," Davis told WMAR.
"We cross our fingers and hope something doesn’t happen - but inevitably something will happen. You have to be proactive, and these events today help you to be proactive," said Buckley.
