Sunday's rain was exceptional: “In a normal heavy rain … you wouldn’t see this amount of flooding, where you see cars floating down the road,” said meteorologist Mike Muccilli with the National Weather Service. No one seems to care that this is going to keep happening. We’re just a little blip here in Howard County. Peters said, "It’s like all of us are screaming to fix it and no one cares. We’ll just have to assess it,” he continued, speaking near a bridge where several crushed cars were swept into a muddy tributary’s banks. It takes a lot of money and a lot of time, a lot of energy. Nathan Sowers, owner of the River House Pizza Co., an outdoor eatery in the old mill town’s business district, said that after all the hard work rebuilding from the 2016 flood, he’s feeling a bit overwhelmed at attempting yet another comeback. And many business owners are still paying off the debt after the last flood smashed their properties. Now, those wanting to rebuild don’t even want to think about how much it might cost. He said the county would support businesses, whether they decide to rebuild or to move on.įor example, flood insurance for old Ellicott City was expensive before the 2016 flood. Kittleman said residents and business owners now have tough decisions to make, according to the Baltimore Sun. It sits in a valley near the Patapsco River, making the region prone to flooding. The city has flooded at least 15 times in the past couple of centuries, Forbes magazine reported. This area isn’t worth saving if it’s going to cost people’s lives.” No amount of detection or warnings are going to help. “We can’t keep losing people to this madness," said Jason Barnes, also an Ellicott City business owner. "These floods go from inches to feet in the blink of an eye. “It’s just another way for them to not actually do anything.” That’s all they do is conduct studies,” he said. He and other members of the group have come up with dozens of solutions but have waited three years to see any large changes. Other factors: slow bureaucracy of government, continued development throughout the region and little changes in flood mitigation efforts.Įllicott City resident Ron Peters has been meeting with other citizens and property owners since 2015 on a flood group that works with the county government. Many think it’s because they had the mindset that it was a thousand-year storm and wouldn’t happen again. Some city residents said the county prioritized getting businesses and residents back up and running - but not preventing another disaster. … We are also working on making the culverts bigger.” "They were just cleaned out about two weeks ago. “We have been restricting channels to handle stormwater, and religiously keeping them cleaned out," he said. Howard County Public Works Director James Irvin said work was being done. Something like this is so devastatingly strong it is difficult to handle.” "When you have 8 inches coming down (in three hours), terrible things can happen. “Ellicott City was as prepared as it could be," Kittleman said. It wasn’t like we had not done anything," he said. Howard County executive Allan Kittleman, at a Monday news conference, said about 30% of the flood mitigation efforts the county had been tackling since the 2016 flood had been completed: “We’ve done a lot, but you can’t get that much done in 22 months. The county also announced that a new flood warning system with new stream gauges was scheduled to be installed next month. "Tremendous progress has been made since the tragic flooding that occurred July 30, 2016," a Howard County master plan report said just last week. The second 1-in-1,000-year flood in two years devastated quaint Ellicott City, Md., on Sunday, leaving residents to ask: Did the city or Howard County do enough after the first flood to prepare for the next one? Watch Video: Drone footage reveals Ellicott City devastation
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