How Natural And Man-Made Forces Make Ellicott City Vulnerable To Flooding
ELLICOTT CITY (WJZ) -- The second deadly flood in less than two years in Ellicott City is raising questions about nearby areas that make the community susceptible to destructive flooding.
Maryland was still an English colony when water-powered mills gave rise to Ellicott City.
"It funnels that power and concentrates it, which is good for mill operation, but when you have a flood scenario, obviously it gets destructive and that's what we've seen," U.S. Geological Survey Data Chief Jon Dillow said.
Three branches of the Patapsco River meet at Ellicott City, which sits at the bottom of a narrow basin.
"So when all three get together, that's why you start getting a triple whammy. The further down into historic Ellicott City you get, you get all three contributing," Dillow said.
Feeding those three branches is runoff from rain. Hard surfaces can't absorb any of it, rapidly increasing the volume of water. Just how much volume is what Dillow will try to calculate in the upcoming days.
It won't, however, be a "1,000-year flood."
"1,000-year flood is a bit of a misnomer. There is no such thing as a once every 1,000 year. Floods occur when they occur," Dillow said.
Like the one two years ago, since 1768, 15 major floods from storms have the Ellicott City area.
"Everyone kept saying this is a one in 1,000 years, and we were all on Main Street saying, 'No, it's not, it's going to happen again.' There's too much issues here. There's nowhere for the water to go," resident Kelli Meyers said.
Instead of a 1,000-year flood, researchers say it's more like one-in-one-thousand chance that a rainstorm will trigger flooding.
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