ANNAPOLIS — From the Eastern Shore to Ellicott City, Maryland is no stranger to flooding. As temperatures continue to warm and sea levels rise, the state is working to quickly acclimate to changes in our waterways.
“Maryland experiences flooding from primarily three different sources: and that is precipitation-based flooding, so when it’s raining and storming, it also experiences riverine flooding, so this is when rivers are really high and overcoming their banks and that's what we saw in Ellicott city. Lastly is high tide flooding,” said Kate Vogel the Coastal Resilience Planner for Maryland DNR.
The city of Annapolis is a place that has to quickly alter and adapt to rising waters as it greatly impacts local businesses.
“We have some statues behind you and these restaurants that have really been greatly impacted by this,” said Vogel.
During Tropical Storm Isaias, the water levels came up multiple feet over city docks, flooding roadways, forcing businesses to protect themselves with sandbags, and lifting boats where boats shouldn’t go.
“But it’s funny because as soon as the storm ends people are out again in the area or again trying to feed the ducks. People are really curious about it, but I think it’s really important that we start to have a conversation about is this our new normal, what does this look like, and what to do during this type of event,” said Vogel.
Some local communities are placing posts and marking fire hydrants to let people know that if the water gets above a certain height, it’s not safe to pass.
“The planning and implementation phase in my work that we are doing is just enhancing the community’s resilience to flooding, so that means decreasing the risk when we can or adapting and planning for the risk when we can, " said Vogel.
Turning the city of Annapolis into being proactive. Very soon a revitalization of the city dock parking lot will go underway. Turning parts of the lot into a flood garden, creating a much larger parking deck nearby with 700 spaces.
“This will reduce the imp[acts of flooding while still encouraging recreation and visitation. And so, it’s learning how our changing environment is impacting us, but also kinda celebrating that,” said Vogel.
In addition to the city making changes, Maryland DNR has come up with a user-friendly way to help the community report flooding around the state.
“MyCoast is like your Facebook app or Messaging app and it’s also a website, so you can use it on your phone or your computer,” said Vogel.
The basics of it is you just take a photo. High tide, flooding, water over roads and more are what they are looking for, and you then submit it to them.
“You can use MyCoast to see how high the water is, when is the nearest tide, and the highest tide expected, and so if you are planning a picnic to our new park downtown, you're gonna wanna look when the high tide is,” said Vogel.
By submitting a report, you are helping to tell the story of the rain or coastal event that day. This can help the community to better understand these events.
“We know that there is so much data and information that these people can tell us. That these photos can share so by collecting these photos we really get a timeline over the past 5, 10 years of ‘What is flooding look like’ and ‘what is it looking like into the future’,” said Vogel.
As more people start to use the app, more data can be gathered and studied. This can help with future flood plans in Maryland.
“That’s the goal, we are trying to reduce the impact and still maintain accessibility… And I think with all of this data we will really start to make an impact on these decisions. So, to everyone that sends in a photo to my coast you are helping decision makers to plan to help reduce our flooding, so I just want to say thank you,” said Vogel.
Here is the link to visit the MyCoast website for more information https://mycoast.org/md
