(dramatic piano music) ♪ ♪ BILLIE JO CHANDLER: We had a flood in December in here.

WOMAN: Yeah, I remember hearing about that.

BILLIE JO: And I got like, nine inches in here.

(sound of vehicle wading through water) MAN: Yep.

Just wading through water in a five ton.

Ohhh...I'm cold.

This is a five ton.

Look how high the water is right now.

PRODUCER: How's the flooding in Crisfield?

YOUNG BOY: Horrible.

Hate being stuck inside.

Also, the flooding was pretty bad around like, Woodson.

You could barely even see the road.

REV.

EMANUEL JOHNSON: We didn't know, if we were going to have to cancel the service... REV.

JACKSON: Yeah.

REV.

JOHNSON: ...because when it rains hard, the street here in front of the church floods.

REV.

ANTHONY JACKSON: Yes.

REV.

JOHNSON: And then, by the time folks get out of church, that means they got to wade into water to get to the cars.

REV.

JACKSON: Yeah, MAN #2: Ah, it's severe.

I mean, it keeps people from going to work, going to school.

I mean, daily life is definitely interrupted.

WOMAN #2: We've lived in the same home since 1975.

Up until 1984 we didn't have any flooding.

Since then, we've had hurricanes and the flooding becomes more severe every time.

♪ ♪ PHIL GOLDSBOROUGH: This is Goldsborough's Marine that we're at right now and we're in the lower part of what we call the downtown area of Crisfield, Maryland.

The lower part of this town is built on oyster shells and then immediate just to west of us is the old railroad bed and that's really what made Crisfield is the railroad.

It came here and it went across the marsh for a certain extent on pilings in order to get to 20 feet of natural water.

PAT SOMERS: Now, you know the train went down the center of the town.

That's why we have quote, a dual highway to nowhere.

This is the original railroad manager's desk from the railroad office.

When the U.S. Geological Survey surveyed the Bay in the 1850s, there were huge oyster deposits in Tangier Sound.

By that time, Long Island and those areas had depleted theirs and many of those people moved here to oyster.

It became a pretty thriving business.

This whole section was originally marsh and water, and because of shucking the oysters, and pouring the oyster shells into the water, eventually land built up.

The oyster houses were built on piers and boardwalks over the water.

PHIL: It was never called Somers Cove, it was always called Annemessex.

It was a small fishing village until 1872.

Now, we're getting ready to incorporate this town through the legislator of Maryland and we do have a charter from the Maryland legislature, so therefore, we needed a name.

At the time, one of the lawyers that was working for the railroad, John Crisfield, was down to take a look to see how progress was going and was apparently walking across the plank in a depot area, and lost his balance, and went overboard.

So, we were very embarrassed as a community, this gentleman who'd done so much for us had got wet that day, so we fished him out and decided we had to have a name.

The legislature required us to have a name for the city, so we called it Crisfield.

The Native Americans that were here during the colonial contact period in 1608 when Captain John Smith came into this area were the Pocomoke Indians.

Annemessex, which is where we're at right now, The Annemessex Indians were a tribe of the Pocomoke Indian Nation in Paramountcy.

It's important to realize what happened because as we make fishing traps today, we make duck decoys today they were all here.

The Native Americans were trapping.

It's very similar to we do with crab trapping today.

We reproduced them today in our cultural demonstrations that we do.

And by 1742, the Nanticoke for sure had got permission in writing from the Dorchester County officials to leave the area and go north and they went up into Pennsylvania, New York state, eventually into Canada, but what was known as the Six Nations.

So those people were pushed away basically because the two cultures weren't working very well together like they'd done originally.

1742 is the date that we look at is most of the Native people have left the Crisfield area as well as basically the Eastern Shore.

We've been here for 52 years serving the public.

When we first started, probably half of the business was involving the commercial crabbing industry, especially as well as fishing today has kind of shifted the most of our business now is in a pleasure market and the seafood business which went downhill.

There's still seafood business in this lower area, although it's not as much as it was at one time.

The situation in the economy have changed all that.

REV.

JOHNSON: At one time there were more than 20 crab houses here and this year there's not a single crab house that's picking, and so part of that legacy is fading.

REV.

JACKSON: Yes, this has always been a community that respected the church and the church values and then we've always had to work hard and most of the work was done through the water, you know.

Naturally, it was called "the crab capital of the world."

So, most of your crab pickers would go into the crab houses and they'd have prayers singing prior to them coming, and so it made Sunday worship really easy because they praised God all through the week.

(laughs) REV.

JOHNSON: In the crab houses, they would have what they call a holdup every day where they would stop at nine o'clock in the morning and sing a hymn or a praise song and some of the women would sing until they got happy.

REV.

JACKSON: They got happy, yeah.

REV.

JOHNSON: Filled with the spirit.

And that's something that we are trying to keep that legacy alive.

I think the African-American women were a large part of the workforce in the crab houses here and if they weren't part of the workforce, no money would've been made... REV.

JACKSON: Yes.

REV.

JOHNSON: ...by these individuals in this community.

REV.

JACKSON: So, in the crab houses, they taught the girls, the girls, they used to bring them up when they were young, they would bring them and set 'em beside them to crack claws.

REV.

JOHNSON: Crack claws.

There's going to be a generation that doesn't know about crab picking... REV.

JACKSON: Yes.

REV.

JOHNSON: ...only hearing the stories of how their mothers and grandmothers, and aunties, you know, picked crabs, and I think that's sad.

REV.

JACKSON: Yes, it is.

REV.

JOHNSON: That this community is losing that legacy.

HUNTER LANDON: The only thing Crisfield is known better for than seafood is flooding and we are still dealing with a bit of the impacts of Tropical Storm Ophelia from over the weekend, but folks here are not letting that put a damper on this day.

The irony of this year's Miss Crustacean wading through floodwaters did not phase Marissa Burke.

MARISSA BURKE: I honestly don't mind.

My dad's a waterman, so I grew up doing stuff with the water and as much as I'm just here to help my town as much as I can.

BILLIE JO CHANDLER: Well, thank God for Facebook memories.

You can go back on your memories and you can see when the tides are and this, that and the other and the higher tides and it's almost coming down to the day when you can see the flooding.

So, like on October the 29th when we had Sandy, every year since then we've had flooding, not Sandy flooding, but we've had flooding where it's been more water than normal.

PHIL: Our community has flooded quite a bit.

Even Hurricane Hazel back in the 1950s was pretty bad on this town.

We had a lot of wind, we had a lot water.

But the water seems be getting worse.

And also, between Smith Island and Tangier, there was actual land at one time.

That land is pretty well gone now.

So from the mouth of Potomac River, it's a straight shot all the way across the Bay.

So, we have these storms like Sandy that bring that wind out of the northwest at close to a hundred miles an hour and the moon phase is causing astronomically high tide, we're in real trouble.

Something's definitely happening.

I've seen in my lifetime, over 75 years you can actually see something that's happening.

So, it's real.

JENNIFER MERRIT: Flooding has dramatically impacted our resource capacity and one of the biggest ways that it's impacted the city's capacity is, if residents and businesses leave because of flooding, that impacts our tax revenue.

Although, our tax revenue may decrease, operating the wastewater treatment plant does not decrease, operating stormwater maintenance doesn't decrease.

All those requirements remain on the city, but then there's less funding to make them happen.

ANDRE COLLINS: Yeah, we were affected by the last flood that we had.

I believe it was two years ago.

It was really, really bad and we had about $16,000 in damage in sneakers and clothes, and you know...computers, and you know, just other things in the store of inventory we had damage in.

So, we moved up in this location to try to get further away from the flooding.

PRODUCER: Could you explain the sign of the front that says, "Resisting change since 1945?"

CASEY TODD: That's a joke.

It doesn't mean, we're resisting change.

It means we're resisting being pushed out.

This is an old building, but it's a functional building and we calculated the cost of moving north five miles and it's cheaper to pour the floor in this building.

We have so much cold storage, so much equipment, the cost of moving would be 10 times that.

So, we raised the floor and crossed our fingers in hoping that we global warming won't give us unmanageable tides.

We can make a living here.

The people who work here can make a living.

We can make a living, but every once in a while, every 30 years somebody comes in here, we're going to change all Crisfield and we're going to do this, we're going to do that.

And I feel like saying, well what about us?

We're still here.

We're still making a living.

Our people still making a living, you know.

So, that's where the resisting change comes from.

We don't want to change.

We can feed our families doing this.

Why would you not want to come here and see that sunset?

To bring people to Crisfield, you got to have something they want.

Mayor Taylor says, one of 'em is the view.

Yeah, we're lucky to have our mayor and you can tell her I said that.

- Pass it on.

CASEY: Pass it on, because she's got some sense.

In other words, she's willing to do tough stuff.

MAYOR: My name is Darlene Taylor and I am the mayor of this amazing place we call Crisfield.

We have been in decline for many years and so now we have a major effort.

We have a top 10 priority list and infrastructure flooding is at the top of that list, but guess what the next thing is?

It is business development and revitalization of our main streets.

PRODUCER: If you could make a new slogan for Crisfield, what would it be?

MAYOR TAYLOR: Come for the crabs, stay for the sunset.

Got it.

(laughs) You had that right on.

Oh, it's been in my spirit for some time.

Come for the crabs and stay for the sunset.

It is amazing.

You can't miss it.

And the people will tell you, you'll see pictures of it on Facebook and people all the time are taking pictures of our sunset and then that feeling that you get as you're watching that is just amazing.

Seafood is our legacy.

Tourism to me is our future.

So, the goal is that we marry the two together and find a way to do that.

So, what has been important is the fact that from an economic standpoint, people will come here because they've heard that Crisfield is the best place for crabs or seafood capital of the world.

And so, once they get here, we've got to show them that we're even more now than we were then.

So, I think that the dock and the marina are ways for us to attract people here, but then once we get them here, we have to show them the other amenities that are available.

DONNIE DREWER: One of the projects we're working on now is housing because we got to grow the population of community and the only way you're going to grow the population of community is, if you have housing for people to buy and move into.

MAYOR TAYLOR: And then, if you don't have a lot of housing, that's where a lot of your revenue comes from to run a city.

So, if you don't have a tax base, then you don't get a lot of money in.

So, we don't have a lot of money to run the city, but if we did, we could do all of the things that are on our priority list.

We could really make this a vibrant town.

The J. Miller Tawes Crab and Clam Bake is a huge event for our community.

A political event and just the opportunity to have those people who come in for that one day trip to stay.

There are many of them who would love to come in early because that clam bake starts at 11 o'clock in the morning.

So, they have to get up early in the morning to travel, but imagine them being able to come a day early.

Imagine what that would do for the economy of our community.

CHRISTINA CARLSON: On weekends primarily we have several programs that we offer to youth as well as adults for participation.

Usually, we talk about the bounty of the Bay, we talk about some of the critters that we house.

We feature the wildlife of this region.

It could be a Diamondback terrapin, an eastern box turtle.

We also have a Bay tank in our nature center and our nature center is usually the hub for a lot of the activities as well as nature crafts and exposing people to nature in a meaningful way.

We have a 2,900 acre salt marsh island that you see behind me and that island serves as a buffer to the city of Crisfield as well as the state park.

We're sitting on the mainland of the park now, but the island will stop a lot of with the wind direction, we have to worry about waves and those waves with tide.

The combination as we can refer to a perfect storm, which would impact us negatively here where our campground can go underwater, our facilities, our infrastructure can become flooded.

It's important because that serves as the buffer, so the city or the park mainland doesn't take a direct hit.

So, when people come here, I think that often they want to know what there is the local amenities.

And our staff does an amazing job of driving traffic into the city, basically telling them what they should experience, whether it be boats loading and offloading that are going to Tangier and Smith Islands, local eatery, the gift shops, the restaurants, the museum in town, and basically the feel of what is in the city, what they're going to experience.

MAYOR TAYLOR: For the kids.

So, you know that it will always be at the core of my heart because one of the things that I realized when I graduated high school though, there weren't a lot of opportunities for you to do very well.

So, you had to leave.

And so, my goal is that they don't have to leave.

So, my goal is how do we drive that opportunity here for them?

And so for me, what we're looking to do is make this a place where they are able to get the foundational information that they need and then to be able to stay here and keep the wealth here.

One of the big things with youth right now in our community is they'll tell you, we have nothing to do.

So that's one of our priority lists as well because we're looking to build things for them to do.

So as we build those assets, protecting those assets from floods will be extremely important.

(sound of door opening) CASEY: I mean, the oyster beds are right there and they're very prolific, very productive, and they're a resource for Somerset County as long as they hold out.

You could have a thriving oyster industry here for decades.

But I think it's possible to have a long-term sustainable business here.

One of the worries was the tongers and the crabbers are getting older.

A lot of 'em are my age in their sixties, but in the last five years there's been a group of younger watermen.

They saw that they could make money tonging oysters.

They've taken up licenses that their dad had or that their cousin had and they've gone back working on oysters in the wintertime.

We've had more local tongers here than we've had.

Twenty years ago, there were almost nobody left doing it.

Now, all of a sudden we've got a fairly decent workforce.

MAYOR TAYLOR: Crisfield as much as we love it of course has its challenges.

Every place has their challenges and flooding has been something that, interesting enough, we have kind of learned to live with.

But we know that it can be a barrier to companies and places that are looking at us for opportunities.

So when I grew up, we had flooding.

It was just a fact of life, but now we see that that's much more frequent.

The infrastructure associated with flooding has always been a big deal.

We made it one of our top priorities.

In the past it was a priority.

I do know that with past administrations because they put a lot of money towards it.

And then, we came in looking for what are some ways that we can improve that issue.

It is just amazing the support that we are getting.

When I took office, one of the first things I said to who was then the city inspector, I said, okay, so what can we do?

I need to understand this flooding issue better.

So what was said to me was, okay, you will never stop the water from coming in.

The most you can do is figure out how quickly you can get the water out.

So, think about that.

That's been the mentality for as long as I can remember.

So, imagine suddenly being told there is an opportunity to slow that water down, so that there are times that it will not come in the way that it did in the past.

So, imagine that.

So, I had never you know, thought that, that was even a possibility.

So, that's where we are today.

PHIL: We're going to have to learn to live with it.

We're going to have to learn to do whatever we can to get the water away.

We can't always stop it from coming in.

And I think we need to look at expanding the town further north up in, well it's in a flood area, but it's much higher than down here and you know, the fire companies and ambulance squads, and things like that can be a little further north.

So, when we got to think about that.

REV.

JACKSON: As the reverend said, this was a thriving community and it was a community that took care of themselves.

Now, I found out that over the years that whenever devastation hit, all colors come together.

As soon as we get back on our feet, they boom right back again.

Yeah, that's the truth.

ANDRE: Honestly, I think the biggest thing I would like to see the town do is for the people to come more together um...because I think that's what's really kind of uh, holding us back, you know.

It stops us from getting things done.

It stops us from growing at the capacity the other towns here locally have been able to grow at.

Obviously, we're in Somerset County, which is, you know, the most impoverished county in the state of Maryland.

Um...however, I think that if as a town we can learn to work together to help each other to support one another, um you know, I think there's no limits on what we can do here because uh...you know, this town has so much, it has so much potential, you know.

But again, as a whole, as a community, we have to work together to try to lift this town up to its capabilities.

ELIZABETH VAN DOLAH: Crisfield here on the lower Eastern Shore is definitely one of those communities that's up against some pretty significant challenges.

It is quite as special and unique place here in Maryland.

It really is the bedrock of what we celebrate as Chesapeake culture.

There's so much history and it's sitting in this amazing environment that's surrounded by the Tangier Sound, the Chesapeake Bay and all these incredible marshes that are an important part of this Eastern Shore landscape.

MAYOR TAYLOR: One of the first projects that we were awarded was a direct technical assistance grant through FEMA.

And so, then they wanted to look at what things can be done, you know, to help with climate resiliency.

Okay...and then, maybe a month later, we're hearing from the EPA, you know, we have this tool that you could look at some things about resiliency.

So, all of these major projects are starting to occur and I'm thinking this is amazing.

CRISFIELD RESIDENT: But you really got to have input from citizens.

There's people in this community that know every single ditch and where it's broke and where the flood gate is.

And I know you have engineers and everything, but you got to reach out.

CRISFIELD RESIDENT #2: We've been fighting this for years and trying to get something done, and it's just got to get together with the county and also because that really affects property in our area are Crisfield, Downneck, and Somerset.

PRODUCER: As far as waterfront communities across the country, do you think Crisfield's like, in terms of planning for the future, do you think Crisfield's on the front end of those innovations?

MAYOR TAYLOR: Oh, yes...we're the model, we're the model.

We will be the model.

We're saying, here is a place worth saving.

And look at the effort that's being put into saving this place and then look at what that benefit is going to be.

At the end of the day, you will have just an amazing, just an amazing place for people to be able to enjoy and to come and to relax, and to live.

BILLIE JO: We're at the beaches.

We have access to water, three sides of us.

You got access to the Bay, you got access to the shipping channel that goes to Baltimore.

And there's a lot of opportunity here.

It's just got to be unlocked.

MAYOR TAYLOR: I am just so grateful that there's so much interest and opportunity as far as Crisfield is concerned.

Anybody that you talk to, anybody that comes here automatically sees the potential.

You have to experience Crisfield.

I can't tell you, I can't even put in words the feeling here, but if you come once you drink the water, you'll buy a house and you absolutely keep coming.

It is a draw.

There is definitely a draw to this community and I have been to a number of places, but there's no place like home.

♪ ♪