The county is hoping for significant help from the state to relieve the burden on local taxpayers.Įven if fully funded and carried out, the plan doesn’t claim to eliminate the threat of flooding, just reduce the depth and velocity of the rushing water. “If everything falls into place, it’s doable.” But, he said, much depends on raising enough funds to pay for the rest. “It’s an aggressive plan,” said James Irvin, the county’s public works director. Where the rest will come from is an open question. The county budgeted about $17 million in each of the last two years to work on projects intended to ease flooding in Ellicott City. I want us to be an example for resiliency, and how we respect and preserve the nature and character of a city while also putting public safety first.” “And I recognize that in this changing climate, where we have more frequent and intense storms, the nation and the world are watching how we deal with these issues. “I wanted to ensure that we had a plan that kept more water off of Main Street and away from the west end ,” Ball said. Sandbags are piled by the home of an Ellicott City resident as an extra precaution. His plan has a target completion date of 2024, the same as Kittleman’s, but it would cost significantly more estimates range from $113.5 million to $140.5 million, compared with $85 million for the previous plan. Ball’s predecessor as county executive, Allan Kittleman, responded with a proposal to buy and take down 10 buildings on lower Main Street to turn that flood-prone area into a waterfront park.īall, a County Council member who defeated Kittleman in last year’s election, opposed that plan, saying he thought a better balance could be struck between safety and retaining historic structures. But a number of businesses and residents have opted not to come back.įlood mitigation projects planned after the 2016 storm were still mostly on the drawing board when last year’s flood hit. The county has repaired the damage to public infrastructure, including one road closed for months after it washed out. The 2018 flood killed one person and washed out many of the same businesses and residents. But the community cleaned up, repaired and returned. The first flood claimed two lives, damaged 90 businesses, displaced nearly 100 residents and put hundreds out of work. In the past, flooding came from the Patapsco rising out of its banks, but the two most recent floods were “top-down,” meaning that rain falling in the 11-square mile Tiber-Hudson watershed burst from the channels of the streams that would normally carry it to the larger river.
Over the years, Main Street has been inundated dozens of times, but there have been three major floods in the last seven years, including Tropical Storm Lee in 2011. Some of the buildings actually sit atop culverted stream channels. It was built in a steep, rocky valley where four streams come together before flowing into the Patapsco River. However, extreme rainfall events have become much more frequent across the Northeast since the 1950s, a trend scientists say is likely to keep happening as the global climate continues to change in the coming decades.Įllicott City has been flood-prone since its founding as a grain mill community in 1772. The floods that devastated old Ellicott City on July 30, 2016, and on May 27, 2018, were generated by “1,000-year storms,” with rains so intense that meteorologists consider them exceptionally rare and put the probability of their occurring in any year at 1 in 1,000. “When you look at the reality of it, there are some buildings that just have to come down in order to ensure the highest level of public safety possible,” Ball said in an interview.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball unveiled a flood mitigation plan in May that aims to keep Ellicott City “safe and sound.” It proposes boring a tunnel to siphon floodwaters away from the quaint shops and restaurants lining Main Street and building or expanding stormwater retention ponds and culverts farther up the watershed.īall’s plan would also demolish four of the historic buildings on lower Main and modify up to six more. Howard EcoWorks Executive Director Lori Lilly, during a tour of Ellicott City’s historic downtown in May.
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