Sunny-day flooding in Somerset County. Photo courtesy The Nature Conservancy.
As a child, I spent many summers on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland making many of my earliest memories; learning to clam, waiting on the fishing docks for the watermen to return with their bounties so we could get jimmy crabs, visiting Smith Island and watching the skipjack races at Deal Island, and learning the unique culture and history– a treasure of the Eastern Shore.
As a resident of the Delmarva Peninsula and executive director of Sentinels of Eastern Shore Health, I have seen firsthand how flooding hurts our communities and the livelihoods of people who live in them. Flooding and sea-level rise are affecting millions of Marylanders, and our state needs to invest more to help our communities adapt and survive.
I’ve personally watched flooding close schools in Crisfield, sea level rise slowly degrade quaint coastal towns until they were essentially uninhabitable, and water wash out the graves of our historic Black communities. I’ve spoken with farmers who are losing acreage due to saltwater intrusion, numerous people with undrinkable well water, and devastated business owners.
As lawmakers prepare to meet in Annapolis for the 2025 legislative session, I and other coastal residents are asking for investment to be directed toward supporting communities experiencing flooding now,and preparing communities for a future with more water. This needs to be a priority for Maryland, with or without federal support.
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Maryland’s more than 7,000 miles of shoreline is a rich mosaic made up of human and ecological histories. Our coastal communities have a strong connection to the lands and water that have supported them and their families for generations. The Chesapeake Bay is also the country’s largest estuary; its ecosystems are home to nearly 3,600 species of plants and animals. The bay is both a haven for biodiversity and an important natural resource that supports the livelihoods of Marylanders.
Our state is expected to experience a foot of sea level rise between 2000 and 2050 – possibly even more – but there would be devastating effects even with just a few more inches. Millions of people who live in Maryland’s coastal areas are at risk from increased and more intense flooding. High tide or sunny-day flooding is a common occurrence on the low-lying Eastern Shore. In 2021, the coastal city of Crisfield, in Somerset County, experienced more than 80 days of sunny-day flooding, a number that is steadily increasing each year. Exposure to saltwater also damages homes and farmland, drowns marshes and pollutes freshwater.
We are also getting hit with stronger and more frequent storms. This year alone, Hurricanes Helene and Milton claimed lives in North Carolina and Florida, and the damage to local economies is in the billions of dollars. As we see stories of communities struggling with the aftermath of Helene and Milton – and in some cases communities that have been completely destroyed – it is a grim reminder that Maryland, too, is extremely vulnerable to similar devastation.
We shouldn’t wait to take action until storms like Helene and Milton have damaged Maryland communities beyond repair. We can avoid the worst impacts of flooding by taking action now, but very few of our local governments are able to do so.
Communities on the Eastern Shore – the most low-lying and geographically vulnerable part of the state – are already burdened with a legacy of historic pollution, systemic racism and difficulty in accessing state and federal resources. Our local governments are often so understaffed, they don’t have the time to look beyond the immediate needs of their communities.
These local governments need staff time and support, financial resources and access to technical expertise to help our communities adapt to climate change. This is where the state needs to invest more, but that’s not all.
Our voices need to be heard in Annapolis where decisions are being made for Maryland’s future investments. The decision-making table needs to be expanded to include the communities most impacted by climate change.
Residents of coastal Maryland know and live every day with the reality that the next hurricane season might be the one that pushes them to the point of no return. Communities in coastal Maryland deserve to define their own futures, and we want the state to be a partner in that. Making these investments and implementing solutions now will save us both money and heartbreak in the not-so-distant future.