During a public meeting this week the residents of Smith Island pleaded with Maryland state officials to put them back on the list for Hurricane Sandy recovery funds.
In Princess Anne on Tuesday one woman told them, “You’re supposed to be helping us recover, but instead you’re killing us.”
The Salisbury Daily Times reports that others said that if they abandoned the state will send the Island into an economic downturn.
Cindy Stone with the Maryland Department of Housing and community Development said the $8.6 million Community Development Block Grant to Somerset came with many federal rules that must be followed.
One is exclusion of areas threatened by sea level rise which could also affect other low lying areas in Somerset County.
But state Senator Jim Mathias (D-Worcester, Somerset) said that if public funds can be used to replenish the beaches of Ocean City…then the same kind of help should be afforded to the residents of Smith Island.
