High Tidal Surges Bring Floods to the Mid-Atlantic Region

Coastal communities in the Mid-Atlantic states remained under flood warnings or advisories on Saturday as they surveyed the damage from the large, slow-moving storm that doused areas of the region and brought some of the highest tidal surges of the past two decades, according to meteorologists.

The storm and flooding affected cities and towns along northern coastal Virginia up through the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay areas, to coastal New Jersey. Waters surged into Annapolis, Md., and Alexandria, Va., and waterways surrounding Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia swelled.

From 2000 to 2015, the incidence of high-tide flooding in the Mid-Atlantic doubled to an average of six days per year from three days, according to a 2018 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We are on the front lines of climate change,” Mr. (David) Mandell said of Annapolis, which has a population of less than 40,000 but contains 17 miles of waterfront. “We see it routinely.”