Posted on 05/27/2018 4:52:12 PM PDT by yoe
A small Maryland town's Main Street metamorphosed into a raging muddy river on Sunday.
Flash floods caused storefronts in Ellicott City, located just outside of Baltimore, to become engulfed by brown, soupy water from the nearby Patapsco River. Parked cars on the street slid and collided into each other.
A state of emergency was declared by the state's governor, (Larry Hogan)
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
They had just finished rebuilding and cleaning up from the last time.
Yes I wondered, if the same town was hit again. Sadly it was.
There are certain places where it just ain’t smart to build.........
I think a guy died down there last time...
No problem, chief! The government will pick up that tab … </sarc>
Ellicott City: a town of many, many floods
Per above: 1901, 1917, 1923, 1942, 1952, 1972...
“...Ellicott City, located just outside of Baltimore, to become engulfed by brown, soupy water from the nearby Patapsco River....”
*************************************************
The flood waters shown are NOT from the Patapsco River (which is down a tall hill from the flood waters shown). The flood waters shown are the drainage running downhill on the main street of Ellicott City. Those flood waters are flowing rapidly down to the river.
Ellicott City suffered from a similar “1,000 year event” in 2016 and just completed its rebuilding from that event. Both “events” were triggered by freak cloudbursts dumping huge amounts of rain in a short time period.
The earliest and most destructive flood recorded came in 1868,
when the Patapsco River rose five feet in 10 minutes. ...
Ellicott City: a town of many, many floods
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ellicott-city-a-town-of-many-many-floods/2016/07/31/94f05032-575e-11e6-9767-f6c947fd0cb8_story.html?utm_term=.8047f915ffc2
The last time was horrible. Hopefully it isn’t so bad this time. We got stuck at a strip mall yesterday when the storm hit; it was a LOT of water, and cloud-to-ground lightening all around us. We saw a street lamp zapped only a block away, many car alarms going off.
Not the worst I’ve been caught out in, but one of the longest downpours.
Ping
The old part of the city goes back to 1772.
That blue Jeep could still make it out of there if they hurry.
Looks like Baltimore is getting that much needed enema.
I'm sure they had their reasons in the 18th century. The reason for rebuilding there today is purely and simply the historic charm. But it's going to flood regularly. Ravines will do thst.
I’ve always wondered why businesses stay in Old Town Alexandria. But I guess the historic aspect makes it worth the routine grief.
I’m not in Ellicott City but pretty close. Here there was almost two feet of water on some of the streets. The worst seems to have passed Thank God. It was like a monsoon.
I’m in Catonsville, am in EC a few times a week, this is heartwrentching. The place was close to recovering from the last flood. So much investment from small businesses lost. Now what?
While they can't stop the rain they should by now have established where water will be coming from and could build levies and diverting channels to mitigate problem.
If the town is worth saving they could engineer solutions.
They either don't have the money or don't want to spend the money. They just want to keep crossing their fingers and hoping this will be the last time.
I was looking at Google Maps Street View. Main Street becomes a funnel for about 5 blocks leading to the river. Several other streets run down hill to Main Street. Seven inches in a couple of hours becomes a unmanageable torrent down the street. The County Executive was asked what mitigation was done after 2016. His response was now is not the time to discuss that.
BTW at 70,000 people Ellicott City is not a small town.
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