Residents motor through the town of North Beach in July 2018 after rain from a storm event exhausted the town’s stormwater management system, leaving flooding and high water.
A resident kayaks through the town of North Beach in July 2018 after rain from a storm event exhausted the town’s stormwater management system, leaving flooding and high water.
Residents motor through the town of North Beach in July 2018 after rain from a storm event exhausted the town’s stormwater management system, leaving flooding and high water.
PHOTO BY AMY ELLIOTT
Parts of the new Fifth Street pump sit on the sand in North Beach awaiting installation.
Photo by Lauren Kabler
A resident kayaks through the town of North Beach in July 2018 after rain from a storm event exhausted the town’s stormwater management system, leaving flooding and high water.
The North Beach Flood Committee is working with Bayland Consultants and Designers to develop a compound flood action plan for short-term and long-term solutions to the area’s flood problems, North Beach Mayor Mike Benton said at a recent public meeting.
The committee is working to identify flood hazards, impacts and strategies to improve conditions using the best available methods for the town’s landscape, according to the committee’s webpage. The Oct. 20 public meeting allowed representatives of Bayland to share their data with residents and to field questions.
Once the plan is developed it will be presented to residents on April 1 when they can share their thoughts, according to town Councilwoman Lauren Kabler, who is the town council’s flood committee liaison. Bayland Consultants will then have a month to make changes based on input from the meeting.
The plan will be funded primarily through grants after finalization, but Kabler says it’s possible that taxes will increase a small amount to help cover costs.
“We’re putting everything on the table in terms of recommendations and solutions,” Kabler said. “One option some towns have used — I’m not saying this town will use it — is a stormwater utility. Typically the way those work … is that it’s not a massive tax increase.”
A slight tax increase may make getting federal funding easier, according to Kabler.
“When you have a stormwater utility, each resident is contributing $10 a year or $25 a year, but it’s not going to be in the thousands. Then when we go to apply for these federal grants and we say, ‘Look, we’re not just asking you to give us all the money.’ Every tax-paying resident is contributing their own fair share,” she said.
New pumps will be installed on Fifth Street as a shorter-term solution for flooding while the plan is being developed, according to Donnie Bowen, deputy director of public works. Installation should take about three weeks but won’t be operational until a control panel is delivered. Bowen says he’s hoping to have the pumps running by next January, but is “at the mercy of the panel supplier.”
The system works by pumping stormwater into a drainage system faster than gravity would allow the water to drain without a pump, explained Bowen. When the water drains too slowly without the proper assistance of pumps, the surrounding area becomes flooded.
“We are waiting on recommendations from the compound flood plan study from [the] Bayland group to confirm the need for pumps in other areas of town,” Bowen said.
Grace Mary Brady, president of the Bayside History Museum on Fourth Street, said flooding has always been a major issue in North Beach and neighboring Chesapeake Beach. Brady takes precautions to keep her museum safe from the water.
“Flooding has been in both towns since day one. … We’ve just gotten more storms,” Brady said. “People will have emergency preparedness plans — we live our plan every day. Everything on the first floor is elevated.”
Brady uses cinder blocks to elevate the museum’s larger items and has old photographs stored in a plastic bin in case flood water rises enough to flood the building. She also has tarps and duct tape ready to use.
“I know I’ve been in the museum before … and water was completely covering the road,” said museum employee Olivia McClung, remembering the last time she saw major flooding in 2018. “The water comes and people can bring their boats up.”
Brady remembered the flooding that year.
“We all went home because all of a sudden we’re in here working in the water,” she said.
