ST. MICHAELS, Md. — St. Michaels officials are continuing work on a long-term flood mitigation effort aimed at protecting several low-lying waterfront areas from flooding and sea level rise.
Town leaders say the project focuses on areas including Mulberry Street, Mill Street, and the Muskrat Park and Church Street corridor. Proposed improvements include raising road elevations, upgrading drainage infrastructure, and strengthening shoreline protections.
Michael Morgan, owner of St. Michaels Marina, says flooding regularly impacts the area.
“It creates water sometimes 3 to 4 to 5 to 7 inches over the piers,” Morgan said.
Morgan says conditions can make it difficult for customers trying to access their boats.
“The flooding can be bad, especially with king tides and such, but people don't. Customers, at the end of the day, don't want to walk through water to get to their boat,” Morgan said.
Town Planner Steve Ball says the work is part of a larger effort to prepare the town for future flooding challenges.
“There were such low elevations to the water that climate change is impacting the area,” Ball said. “It's a slow moving emergency, but it requires some very detailed planning and engineering to really address the concerns over time.”
Ball says proposed improvements would include upgrades along the shoreline.
“We would improve the bulkheads, the seawalls essentially along the shoreline,” Ball told WBOC. “We would improve the boat slips and raise them up as well.”
Former chair of the town’s Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Commission Roy Myers says long-term planning is critical for the town’s future.
“As you look at projected–what’s going to happen with sea level rise over the next five, ten, 20, 25 years, it's very clear that some of the key areas of the town are going to be flooded significantly all the time,” Myers said. “What we're trying to do is to plan to protect the town so it can continue to act as a viable town by 2050.”
Officials say town commissioners would still need to approve final construction plans before any work begins. The current design phase is being funded through a state grant that expires in August of this year.
