For years, a low-lying town at the southern point of Maryland pored over engineering plans to raise its roads, expand wetlands and build a bulwark along the Chesapeake Bay to insulate itself against rising seas.

Hard work paid off for Crisfield, population 2,500 last summer, when federal disaster officials awarded the town $36.2 million for a project to ward off the threat of multiple feet of flooding every day, at high tide, as soon as 2050.

But its plan might be on hold.

President Donald Trump’s administration cancelled Crisfield’s grant earlier this month, along with $882 million around the country through a program designed to reduce communities’ long-term natural disaster risks. According to the state Department of the Environment, the Eastern Shore grant is among $83 million in federal disaster infrastructure wiped from the slate in Maryland.

Also on the chopping block: nearly all of a $32 million grant for a wetlands restoration project in South Baltimore, which city and state leaders hope will serve as the foundation for revitalized communities along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River.

Local leaders behind the infrastructure efforts held out hope that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would restore promised funding, even as they assessed other options for projects that they said are important for protecting coastal communities in response to climate change.

When FEMA cancelled its program, known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), the Maryland Department of Emergency Management was on the verge of submitting an application with another $70 million worth of infrastructure projects around the state.

The first phase of Crisfield’s project, to protect the especially vulnerable southern half of town, is designed to provide protections against storm surges as high as 3 1/2 feet. Crisfield, which sits 3 feet or less above sea level, had prepared a second grant application to extend efforts to the northern wing of town, which it hopes to surround with a tidal barrier 5 feet above sea level.

In a statement late last week lamenting the canceled FEMA grant, Crisfield Mayor Darlene Taylor called work on the initial phase “a turning point” for her community. Crisfield officials appealed to FEMA to reconsider their decision.

“The BRIC program provided essential support for small, rural towns like ours to address chronic flooding challenges,” Taylor said. “Withdrawing this funding increases our vulnerability to future flood events and puts our community at continued risk.”

FEMA did not answer questions about specific projects canceled in Maryland. In a statement, the agency said BRIC “was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program.”

“It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” the FEMA press office said in the statement. “Under Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s leadership, we are committed to ensuring that Americans in crisis can get the help and resources they need.” Noem is the Homeland Security secretary.

In Baltimore, state and local leaders have heralded the Reimagine Middle Branch project as a transformative effort both for the environment and for South Baltimore neighborhoods.

A massive infrastructure endeavor, it aims to develop new wetlands, parks, trails and community centers along 11 miles of shoreline wrapping around the Patapsco River.

The FEMA money was meant to support two wetland restoration efforts, one to guard against flooding around MedStar Harbor Hospital and another around a Baltimore Gas and Electric Company natural gas hub, according to Brad Rogers, executive director of the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, which is helming the project.

The South Baltimore Gateway Partnership had spent about $5 million of its FEMA grant on planning work, Rogers said, leaving about $27 million lost.

Without the promised FEMA funding, project leaders will have to lower ambitions, at least temporarily. The wetlands project around the hospital will be smaller than envisioned, while work at the BGE hub is on pause as backers try to raise more money.

Still, Rogers said Reimagine Middle Branch will press on. In total, the effort had raised around $200 million — including the cancelled FEMA grant — with wetlands restoration work accounting for about $67 million of the fundraising total.

“There’s no doubt that it’s disappointing,” said Rogers, but he emphasized the economic benefits of the project and the environmental protections the wetlands work will provide for a hospital and an important regional utility. “I’m hopeful that when they dig into the details, they’ll see that this is a really practical and useful project.”

Long-term economic benefit is a feature of all BRIC-funded projects, according to Chas Eby, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Emergency Management. He pointed to a 2019 report by the National Institute of Building Sciences that found federal disaster mitigation spending has saved $6 for every $1 in up-front spending.

Since its launch in 2020, the BRIC program has supported projects all over Maryland, according to details shared by the Department of Emergency Management.

Rising Sun in Northeast Maryland was awarded more than $5 million last year in part to acquire mobile homes and relocate residents out of a flood plain — a grant the town won’t see if FEMA’s cancellation holds up.

Among a slate of smaller projects granted in Maryland in recent years, FEMA approved $530,000 to address decades-old flooding in Northeast Baltimore at Hillen Road and 35th Street. That money hasn’t been submitted for reimbursement yet, according to the state agency, meaning it’s vulnerable to being clawed back.

For the next round of BRIC grants, Department of Emergency Management officials said they had prepared an application including $35.6 million for the second half of Crisfield’s flood project, $16 million for storm protections in Cambridge, and money to harden wastewater treatment plants, elevate floodplain homes and other green infrastructure.

FEMA ended the program just before its application deadline.