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’ eighth biggest flooding event on record. This comes after the city’s third biggest flood this past January.
“This is the first year we’ve 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’s not the only flooding milestone Annapolis has reached in 2024 according to Mandell.
“Even if you take out the historic floods I’ve mentioned, we’ve already hit a record here in the city of Annapolis for the highest number of routine flooding events ever,” he explained.
Mandell told WTOP that Annapolis is on track for 120 flooding events this year.
“That’s about every three days it floods at some level here in downtown Annapolis at City Dock,” he said.
WTOP asked Mandell to explain why Annapolis is experiencing so much flooding.
“Climate 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’ve seen — it’s just a nightmare of perfect recipe for serious and extreme flooding here at City Dock.”
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.
“We 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. “The costs are in the tens of millions but the benefits are even greater, I think the benefits exceed 100 million.”
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