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‘Worse and worse and worse:’ Downtown Annapolis now seeing flooding about every 3 days

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After the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby soaked the D.C. area, Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley signed a citywide state of emergency declaration.

Last Friday, the floodwaters in downtown Annapolis surged to over 4 feet above normal levels at City Dock. The city estimates that the storm cost 19 businesses and nonprofits over $162,000 in lost revenue and equipment damage.

Debby is now Annapolis鈥 eighth biggest flooding event on record. This comes after the city鈥檚 third biggest flood this past January.

鈥淭his is the first year we鈥檝e ever had two top 10 flooding events at City Dock,” said David Mandell, the deputy director of the City of Annapolis Office of Emergency Management.

That鈥檚 not the only flooding milestone Annapolis has reached in 2024 according to Mandell.

鈥淓ven if you take out the historic floods I鈥檝e mentioned, we鈥檝e already hit a record here in the city of Annapolis for the highest number of routine flooding events ever,” he explained.

Mandell told 海角精品黑料 that Annapolis is on track for 120 flooding events this year.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 about every three days it floods at some level here in downtown Annapolis at City Dock,鈥 he said.

海角精品黑料 asked Mandell to explain why Annapolis is experiencing so much flooding.

鈥淐limate change, sea-level rise has gotten worse and worse and worse,” Mandell said. “When you’re starting from a higher baseline, once you get the conditions in place to cause flooding, the high winds, high tide, historic storms, tropical systems like we鈥檝e seen 鈥 it鈥檚 just a nightmare of perfect recipe for serious and extreme flooding here at City Dock.鈥

The city of Annapolis does have a plan to keep things dryer at City Dock. Mandell says they are waiting for a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get that plan rolling.

鈥淲e have to prove that the benefits of building this flood mitigation measure at City Dock are greater than the cost and we have done that,” said Mandell. 鈥淭he costs are in the tens of millions but the benefits are even greater, I think the benefits exceed 100 million.鈥

Downtown Annapolis was badly flooded after Tropical Storm Debby, with hundreds of thousands dollars worth of damage to businesses. (海角精品黑料/Jimmy Alexander)
A boat on the water a week after Tropical Storm Debby flooded the downtown Annapolis docks. (海角精品黑料/Jimmy Alexander)
David Mandell, the deputy director of the City of Annapolis Office of Emergency Management, breaks down why flooding is getting so much worse in downtown Annapolis. (海角精品黑料/Jimmy Alexander)
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Jimmy Alexander

Jimmy Alexander has been a part of the D.C. media scene as a reporter for DC News Now and a long-standing voice on the Jack Diamond Morning Show. Now, Alexander brings those years spent interviewing newsmakers like President Bill Clinton, Paul McCartney and Sean Connery, to the 海角精品黑料 Newsroom.

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