ST. MICHAELS, Md. - An informatory site in St. Michaels and an app created by the Department of Natural Resources are helping communities along the Eastern Shore learn about and interact with flooding.
The sites are called St. Michaels Flood Watch and MyCoast. Scientists say these sites will help low-lying areas like St. Michaels prepare for flooding for decades to come.
MyCoast is an app that works around the state of Maryland and encourages people to snap a picture where there is consistent flooding in areas like their yards, streets, neighborhood, etc. DNR partners with the developers of MyCoast.
The app is in turn helping a new website called St. Michaels Flood Watch.
According to climate change commissioner and site creator Dr. Andrew Thaler says St. Michaels Flood Watch allows people in the community to assess vulnerabilities in town and look at ways to combat that chronic flooding.
Kate Vogel is a coastal resilience planner with DNR. She says the MyCoast app will allow researchers to prioritize trouble spots.
"Just even getting those pictures out there is a way for people to tell their story and just really help everyone collect this data so we can know where we should be prioritizing adaptation projects in conversations," says Vogel.
Pictures sent to the app help the St. Michaels Flood Watch site with creating models and predicting what a 2-foot or 4-foot flood zone in St. Michaels might look like down the road.
"This is nuisance flooding. It's the kind of flooding that we expect to see on a sunny day. This is what happens when we have a big high tide or some offshore wind. This is not the kind of flooding that we see with hurricanes but the flooding we expect to see almost on a daily chronic occurrence," says Thaler. He says the site will make sure neighbors and tourists are ready for potential sea level rise.
"When we get to the point where we're seeing floods of that magnitude every day, we're ready for it. The roads can handle it. The town will be possible. The town will be livable. What I like to say is, 'the kinds of flooding we're preparing for is not disaster flooding. It's not an emergency. This is not the flooding you run from. This is the flooding have to live with every day," says Thaler.
Thaler added, "It’s really for residents to get an idea for what they can expect in terms of nuisance, flooding in town going into the next two decades. So if you are looking at buying a house in town, if you’re looking at building improvements, if you’re looking at understanding what the roads will look like going forward in 2030, 2040, 2050."
MyCoast and St. Michaels flood watch have expanded to several different communities and counties along the Eastern Shore and say they hope to reach more.