Sen. Van Hollen Tours Flooding Prone Areas of Crisfield

(CRISFIELD, Md) -Across a 40 minute tour of Crisfield, Senator Chris Van Hollen was shown how consistent flooding continues to impact the Somerset County Community.

And how something like this in a politically varied community, it’s not a one-sided issue.

Senator Van Hollen tells us, “This was a very important investment. It’s a common sense investment. Floods aren’t Democratic or Republican floods. They’re just Mother Nature. And it would be smart for all of us to take and take these dollars investment and protect Crisfield.”

Crisfield Mayor, Darlene Taylor spoke about some of the effects the flooding has on her community.
From schools closing a dozen times in the last few years to high water levels, to plenty of roads needing to be replaced.
And she’s hoping funding will come through.

Mayor Taylor told the crowd in attendance, “He’s been very instrumental and writing letters to the administration and calling out Crisfield in every event. I was at one last night where he called out Crisfield and what our needs are for this flood mitigation.”

Mayor Taylor also showed how the need for that $36 million in federal funding could help with reinvigorating the city’s downtown area by raising roads and fortifying older buildings.

And Senator Van Hollen says that this is also a matter of making sure people can live their lives in peace.

“You can’t. You can’t sort of live day to day under constant threat that your city is going to be shut down by floods. And so if we really care about Crisfield and towns and cities like Chris Field, we need to make these investments,” says Van Hollen.

And Mayor Taylor told us off camera as well that despite the loss in millions of dollars in federal funding, she wants to assure the Somerset County Community they’re going to find a way to make that resilience a reality