Main Street follows the steep valley of the Tiber down to the Patapsco River. It was a mill town said to be built around seven hills through which streams converge on a small river, aptly named the Tiber. Today, Ellicott City is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area, but it originated as a rural community that prospered by harnessing the location’s great potential for water power. Most were associated with the Patapsco River, but according to Preservation Maryland, last week’s event was Ellicott City’s 15 th catastrophic flash flood since 1768. Sadly, such inundation is nothing new for Ellicott City, for it has experienced many major floods in the past. This event hit the headlines, thanks to dramatic video footage and because it is even worse than the major flooding there in July 2016. Late in the afternoon two waves of intense flooding surged down picturesque Main Street up to 8 feet deep, inundating first floors and basements, washing vehicles away, and depositing tons of debris and mud tragically, a life was lost. We love being here,” Shoemaker said.On May 27 dramatic flash flooding wreaked havoc in the historic center of Ellicott City, 13 miles west of Baltimore in Maryland. “It’s such a great community, and the town’s been good to us. Turning serious, he said one day, he’ll likely move to higher ground, but doesn’t want to leave Ellicott City. It’s that just that one day that kind of ruins it for the rest,” he said with a laugh. “You know, people ask about that and I tell them Ellicott City’s a great place to live 364 days out of the year. A recent rain of just one-third of an inch “turned it into a river,” she said.Īnd Shoemaker, who spent Wednesday making sure his wife and 3-year-old were out of harm’s way, was asked, with the constant risk of flooding, why stay? In the meantime, she said, she keeps a close eye on the culvert that runs behind homes that line Main Street. Walsh said she understands that some of the work on reducing floods is dependent on those outside agencies, but on the flip side, she argued there were things within the county’s control that weren’t being done, including limiting development in areas that she said contribute to runoff that could affect historic Ellicott City. ![]() Army Corps of Engineers.Ĭounty Executive Calvin Ball said he’s hopeful the full “ Safe and Sound” flood mitigation plan can be carried out by 2025, and an update on where things stand with the project planning is set for Aug. Permitting is being done through the Maryland Department of the Environment and the U.S. In the long term, there’s a $140 million plan to mitigate flooding that DeLuca said has to go through approval by regulatory agencies. ![]() Though they’re short-term measures, DeLuca said they are part of an ongoing strategy to increase public safety. There’s also an alarm system that has been put in place to alert people on what to do and where to go when there’s a flood warning. “You certainly can’t discount that,” he said. Mark DeLuca, deputy director for public works with Howard County, said, “I respect her opinions, and I can understand her frustration, because capital projects, they do take a while” to go from planning to construction.īut DeLuca said there has been progress: There have been stopgap measures, such as cleaning out the culverts that run through the city and an aggressive program to remove any debris that would exacerbate flooding. “Four years later from the 2016 flood and we have very little to show for it in terms of flood-works, in terms of damage mitigation,” Walsh said. The family keeps a close eye on the flow when storms hit - and keeps bags packed in case they need to evacuate. ![]() This culvert in Ellicott City is seen from the back deck of John Shoemaker’s home.
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