‘Devastating’ event
Ellicott City hit by 2nd major flood in less than 2 years as rain swamps area
Ellicott City was devastated by flash flooding from a massive rain storm Sunday, just two years after a similar event forced the historic city in Howard County to rebuild much of its Main Street.
Murky brown water ripped through Main Street — the epicenter of flooding in the region — in the late afternoon, submerging cars and businesses’ first floors for nearly two hours. By nightfall, flood waters had begun to recede. The cycle replayed scenes from 2016: Customers stranded in restaurants, storefronts destroyed and cars overturned.
Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and directed the Maryland Emergency Management Agency to assist in Ellicott City’s recovery.
“They say this is a once- every-1,000years flood, and we’ve had two of them in two years,” he said, calling the event “devastating.”
Officials said no fatalities or missing people had been reported as of Sunday evening.
“This is worse” than the storm in July 2016, which killed two people and destroyed local businesses, Howard County Executive Allan H. Kittleman said at a news conference Sunday evening. He said he was “heartbroken” and urged people to avoid the area. “This is people’s lives, and they don’t need to have strangers coming around” gawking at the destruction, he said.
That July 2016 storm cost the historic mill town tens of millions of dollars in damages and lost business. And the damage was similar Sunday, with many of the same storefronts along Main Street — including the former historic Caplan’s Department Store — gutted once again.
More than 2,400 Howard County businesses and residents remained without power as of about 9:45 p.m. Sunday, according to BGE. The county’s outages represented just over half of the outages across the region, according to the utility company.
Roughly 1,300 customers were without power in Baltimore Sunday night, BGE said,
and Baltimore County and the other surrounding counties had less than1,000.
A little more than two weeks ago, Hogan announced the state and county had been awarded more than $1 million by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fund projects aimed at reducing the flood risk in the areas surrounding Main Street. At the time, he called it an “important step in the rebirth of downtown Ellicott City.”
Jessica Ur, a server at Pure Wine Cafe on Main Street, said she saw the pounding floodwaters carry three or four parked cars down the street.
“It’s significantly higher than it was before,” she said, referring to the previous flood. “At this point, I’m definitely really worried about all our neighbors on Main Street.”
Patrons stuck on the second-floor deck of Phoenix Emporium watched the swift waters rush past trucks and Jeeps left in the road. Arianna Wilgar, an employee of Portalli’s Italian Restaurant, said the water had reached the establishment’s second floor. It was not that high last time, she said.
“I haven’t seen the shop yet, but I know it’s going to be devastating,” said Len Berkowitz, the owner of Great Panes Art Glass Studio. “But there’s nothing you can do, I guess. Nature has its way.”
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Brian LaSorsa, 7.48 inches of rain fell in Ellicott City by Sunday evening, and the Catonsville area got 9.71 inches.
After the last flood, the Ellicott City Partnership raised more than $1.85 million to help business owners and property owners rebuild and recover. On Sunday, organizers updated their website, HelpEllicottCity.com, and said they were using it once again to raise funds for those affected by Sunday’s the storm.
Kittleman said there were “a lot of swift water rescues” amid the storm. And many others fled from restaurants and other venues along Main Street on their own.
The flooding forced a wedding party to evacuate, some with heels in hand, from the Main Street Ballroom.
“It looked like we were in the Titanic or ‘The Poseidon Adventure’,” said the bride’s father, Bill Rigney. At first, the ballroom doors were keeping water out, but “all the sudden it just can’t anymore.”
Howard County fire and rescue department tweeted that “hundreds of rescuers” swarmed to the area, with swift water units responding from as far away as Northern Virginia.
A Howard County spokesman, Mark Miller, said that the county would soon begin putting together its long-term recovery plan —“just like last time.”