2019 Silver Jackets Team of the Year: Maryland Silver Jackets Team

The 2019 award recognizes the achievements of the Maryland Silver Jackets team. The team has successfully collaborated on the state’s flood risk management priorities that include community outreach and support, updating flood modeling and mapping, and empowering local communities through the creation of flood risk tools.

Team activities described below showcase the Maryland team’s ability to be innovative leaders and to communicate and collaborate effectively to assist the state and local partners. The team’s success can be attributed to active participation and involvement by multiple team members from local, state and federal agencies, non-profit organizations and academia. Recent team activities include:

• Hosting three interagency nonstructural flood proofing workshops for community officials and the public.
• Supporting the USACE Baltimore District’s levee risk communication public meeting for the Anacostia River levee system.
• Holding a special session with Ellicott City officials to provide input on flood risk challenges.
• Participating in a Maryland Flood Tabletop Exercise and the first state Flood Insurance Roundtable hosted by the Maryland Department of Environment.
• Partnering with the Maryland Historical Trust to develop tools to address flood risk to historic buildings, including development of flood proofing concept plans for eight historic buildings in Baltimore City, developing the “Flood Mitigation Guide: Maryland’s Historic Building,” and participating in a workshop to help local governments and historic preservationists reduce flood risk to historic buildings.

The team is currently developing a pilot mapping tool that uses NOAA National Weather Service’s National Water Model data to create flood inundation maps. The goal of the effort is to ultimately develop inundation maps for watersheds in Maryland without stream gages to assist residents with understanding their flood risk.