City of Crisfield to Trump Administration: Return Promised BRIC Funds to Fight Sea Level Rise

Despite being the highest-scoring project nationwide awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) FY2023 program, the City of Crisfield, Maryland’s $36 million flood mitigation project has been put on hold indefinitely because the Trump administration has terminated BRIC and cancelled the grant.  

The project, developed with the support of FEMA’s Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) initiative, was designed to protect the southern portion of Crisfield from tidal flooding, storm surge, and rising seas. According to Crisfield Mayor Darlene Taylor, the project would ensure long-term sustainability and provide essential support for the small, rural town to address chronic flooding challenges. “Withdrawing this funding increases our vulnerability to future flood events and puts our community at continued risk,” said Mayor Taylor. 

BRIC, which was established by Congress through the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018, was meant to focus on resilience building in order to reduce risks to life and property, as well as reduce the costs of disaster recovery. In line with the Trump administration’s apparent agenda to roll back federal funding for communities, FEMA cancelled the BRIC program in April 2025, stating that it was “wasteful and ineffective,” a statement that Chad Berginnis, Executive Director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, calls a “flat-out lie.”  

FEMA also alleged that the BRIC program was “more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.” However, it is the Trump administration’s continued efforts at clawing back funds that have already been awarded to communities that seem to be in service of a “political agenda” and are directly putting Americans at an increased risk of natural disasters. I say that if this project was not meant to “help Americans affected by natural disasters”—made worse by climate change, no less —then I don’t know what project would be. The Trump administration has left Crisfield, a small town with a population of about 2,500 and a small budget, like many other communities without the financial means to protect themselves against climate impacts, to fend for itself. There are legal challenges against FEMA’s funds withholding and grant cancellations, but until that is resolved many communities such as Crisfield are left on their own, and in limbo. 

We sat down with Mayor Taylor just after the City of Crisfield had been awarded the grant, when she had a vision for what Crisfield would be after the mitigation plan had been implemented. Born and raised in Crisfield, she talked about history and life there, the changes she’s seeing, and what the grant meant for her community. Below are excerpts from our conversation. Some parts have been edited for clarity. 

UCS: What are your memories of growing up in Crisfield? 

Mayor Taylor: I was born and raised here, and when I grew up, it was an extremely vibrant town. That was the thing that I remember the most, is that there were a lot of seafood houses. That was a big deal for us. And there was a major plant called Mrs. Paul’s, where a lot of people also worked. The seafood houses have all closed now, there’s only one that’s still left, and that seafood house just concentrates on oysters and soft crabs. But I know that flooding is an issue for them because it’s sitting right on the water, just like the city in general is.  

UCS: Was flooding always an issue for Crisfield? 

MT: I remember growing up and [the city] flooded, but nowhere near the way it does today. The frequency just wasn’t the same as now. There’s a lot of tidal flooding that occurs, not just with storms. That’s a big deal for us and it just truly impacts our way of life from schools having to close to events being cancelled.  

When schools are closed in Crisfield that means schools are closed for the entire county [because the decision comes from Somerset County]. Basically, what’s happened is the [County School] Superintendent now has put into place a process by which students are going to be prepared to use Zoom, as opposed to just not having a school day at all. They’ll be prepared to have a virtual day.  

Another example: “It Takes a Village” —a youth facility —is located downtown and today we have flooding. They said it was supposed to be about 2 1/2 feet of flooding. So we have to close off the roads and what that means is that the youth program that’s supposed to start at 4pm today has to be canceled and now parents have to figure out where they’re going to take their kids that would normally come to us.  

A major event that we have is our Jay Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake. Jay Millard Tawes was a former governor who was from Crisfield, and so every year they’ve had this annual [event], for probably 50 years or more. The governor comes every year and it’s a huge event where all politicians come, and people come from all over. It’s usually a few thousand people that come for that day, and it’s a huge event economically for Crisfield. Last year was the first time I ever remember that the event was flooded out. We still held the event, but people had to walk through water to actually [get there], including the Governor who had to come in the back way because of the water. 

UCS: The economic impact must be enormous, right? 

MT: It definitely is hampering us. When we have to cancel events, it’s an economic issue; whenever people can’t get to work, it’s an economic issue. And we’ve seen so much more of that recently than we had in the past, so we know that things have definitely changed. Our community absolutely has deteriorated and being the mayor, one of the first things that they said to me was, you can’t do anything until you fix the flooding problem, that’s going to be your major challenge.  

Businesses are not going to come here because of the potential for flooding.