Ellicott City Maryland

Prayers up, for all involved.

I live in Howard County, the same county as which Ellicott City is located.  Ellicott City, located on the Patapsco River,  is about fourteen miles away from my town of Savage.   My town, located along the Little Patuxent River isn't experiencing any flooding although the river is high.   The historic section of Ellicott City which basically is it's Main Street has been ravaged by flooding.  Businesses and residences are heavily damaged.  Cars were swept away in the flash flood waters.  Luckily at this point no lives have been lost and no one has been injured.  News reports say no one has been reported missing. Hopefully this bit of good news will continue to hold true.  All this is pretty amazing given the intensity and magnitude of this flash flood.  This is the second flash flood Ellicott City has experienced in a little under two years. As waters have subsided, the fire dept has evacuated the area due to a major gas leak. 

Main Street Ellicott City has lots of charm.  It's host to restaurants, micro brews, art galleries, antique shops, and unique boutiques. On any weekend afternoon, weekday evenings people by the hundreds, if not thousands, flock to this historic area.  

It's highly unlikely the Baltimore and Ohio station ...the first railroad terminus in the US as Peter pointed out ...  is under water given it's higher elevation.  I did see news videos that looked as they were being shot from the B and O station area.  Ellicott City has experienced several huge floods over its life time which spans a couple centuries.  The station has been witness to most of these floods dating back to the eighteen hundreds.  As Peter said the station is home to a museum.  Until recently the museum was managed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum and is now  managed by the Howard County Dept. of Parks.  

Hopefully they won't get 48 inches like Houston did.

There was a place near Houston which got 60!

trumptrain posted:

 It's highly unlikely the Baltimore and Ohio station ...the first railroad terminus in the US as Peter pointed out ...  is under water given it's higher elevation.  I did see news videos that looked as they were being shot from the B and O station area.  Ellicott City has experienced several huge floods over its life time which spans a couple centuries.  The station has been witness to most of these floods dating back to the eighteen hundreds.  As Peter said the station is home to a museum.  Until recently the museum was managed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum and is now  managed by the Howard County Dept. of Parks.  

All good news, Patrick, especially about the inhabitants..........Thanks.

Peter

So sad to see what's happening there. We visited a few years ago and it's a really neat place.

Gerry

Yes, second flood in two years.  My daughter, who lives Columbia, MD, said that there has been an effort, to add rain-water retention/clean/clear water-ways, and do remedial work in the area, since the first flood.  6" to 8" of rain, in 3 to 4 hrs. is a bit much.   The community, where she lives, has a large retention pond, which over-topped in a few hrs.  A lot of water.   

Link to news article with pictures. 

Copied picture from the news article. 

Driven by that station to the B&O Museum.   Wonder what accident of geology set this up for two flash floods in a highly urban area..  Other cities with this problem fixed it with upriver dams decades ago.

Colorado Hirailer, the Weather Channel said something about measures taken after the flood two years ago failed.  They apparently did something.

Ellicott City is built upon the confluence of Tiber Creek and the Patapsco River. They have survived flood and fire before. 

Trouble is recent upstream development with little provision for runoff containment and Main Street becomes a giant funnel.

Putnam Division posted:

trumptrain posted:

 It's highly unlikely the Baltimore and Ohio station ...the first railroad terminus in the US as Peter pointed out ...  is under water given it's higher elevation.  I did see news videos that looked as they were being shot from the B and O station area.  Ellicott City has experienced several huge floods over its life time which spans a couple centuries.  The station has been witness to most of these floods dating back to the eighteen hundreds.  As Peter said the station is home to a museum.  Until recently the museum was managed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum and is now  managed by the Howard County Dept. of Parks.  

All good news, Patrick, especially about the inhabitants..........Thanks.

Peter

Unfortunately there is a National Guardsman now missing.  He was swept away by flood waters as he was trying to rescue others.  There is an all out search for him now.    As far as I can tell he is the only person now missing due to this horrific flood.  Lets all hope and pray that he will be found alive.  

What Farmer Bill said is quite true.  But there is more to the story.  The meteorologist for the NBC affiliate in Baltimore (Channel 11)  explained that the problem stems from when the city was first built.  Back then, it was wood, no concrete or brick.  The land could absorb most of the runoff.  When they modernized with brick and concrete, they did not consider the affect that would have on future rain storms.  There is no place for the rain to go back into the soil and thus the funnel effect.

Mike CT posted:

Yes, second flood in two years.  My daughter, who lives Columbia, MD, said that there has been an effort, to add rain-water retention/clean/clear water-ways, and do remedial work in the area, since the first flood.  6" to 8" of rain, in 3 to 4 hrs. is a bit much.   The community, where she lives, has a large retention pond, which over-topped in a few hrs.  A lot of water.   

Link to news article with pictures. 

Copied picture from the news article. 

Mike CT   I live in Howard County, the same county as Ellicott City.  Of course I've visited EC numerous times as it is the County Seat.   Your photo actually shows where Tibet Creek flows into the Patapsco River .... through the portal on the left.  The CSX single track main line ... actually the Baltimore and Ohio "Old Mainline" is shown directly above.  Almost to the immediate right of Tibet Creek, and not shown in the photo, is the Baltimore and Ohio Station  which is the first railroad terminus in the US.  

The water wrecked car is on Main Street where Main Street goes under the CSX tracks.  Just beyond/behind the car is a vehicle bridge which spans the Patapsco River carrying traffic from Howard County to Baltimore County.  

The real problem here is not the Patapsco River ... although it can be at times ..  but with Tibet Creek which starts way up the hill behind where this photo was taken.  At times the creek parallels Main Street and actually runs underneath some of the buildings on Main Street. During heavy rains Tibet Creek turns into a raging river spilling over onto Main Street which turns Main Street into about a three quarter mile water slide downward ... as Main Street is really a pretty steep hill in actuality.  The bottom of that hill is captured in the above photo. 

After the flood of almost two years ago, the state and county made some measures to curb water flow in case of a heavy rain, however, as I understand it, more was to be done in a major way.  The Federal government recently appropriated one million dollars toward a major project to remedy the flooding problem.  No one was expecting a flood of this proportion so soon.  Ellicott City experienced a huge flood in 1952, 1972, 2016, and now as far as I can remember.  There were more floods dating back to the 1800s and earlier twentieth century.  

This photo also shows the very spot where a few years ago two young women were sitting on this CSX bridge and facing us as we view this photo. They were looking up Main Street.  At the time there was a walkway/platform along side the tracks on which they were sitting ... you can see the protruding supports in the photo.    A CSX coal train came along and derailed, killing both of the young women, spilling coal all over this area.    An extremely tragic event for sure.   Young lives cut short.  The station however was not damaged by derailed hopper cars. 

Ellicott City has survived many floods over the years.  It will survive this one too.  Hopefully major improvements will take place so that this level of devastation does not happen again and lives are never lost. 

I believe Alvin, Texas holds the CONUS rainfall record for 24 hour period at 43+ inches in 1979.  That's almost 2 inches an hour.

Retention ponds have been required in Austin Tx since the 80s.  They stay dry most of the time, but have proven very effective.  Our flooding issues have almost been eliminated. 

I had the pleasure of visiting the old Ellicott City station in February 2017, where it looked like a town on the rebound.  Best of luck to its residents and shop owners.

David