Engineers: Multi-Million Dollar Projects Can't Guarantee Ellicott City Won't Flood Again
ELLICOTT CITY Md. (WJZ) -- It has been five days since floodwaters ravaged Ellicott City and as the clean-up continues, many wonder what can be done to prevent another catastrophic slide.
There are $84 million worth of projects in the pipeline to help stop flooding, but engineers say no matter how many millions of dollars are spent, there is still a chance of a damaging flood again.
RELATED: Ellicott City Resumes Rebuild After Being Spared From Additional Flooding
Emotionally exhausted Ellicott City business owners have a tough decision: Should they stay in the historic mill town after two deadly floods in less than two years or leave for good?
"It is a brutal reality or every time it rains we're gonna have to worry about being flooded again," business owner Blair Jett said. "I just can't do that, I don't think I can do it."
Engineers with McCormick Taylor conducted a comprehensive study after the 2016 flood and recommended 18 projects costing $80 million to reduce flooding, but they admitted even that could not stop it from happening again.
"You're still funneling all that water down to one area of town and you're still gonna get the flooding of the road because there's not the natural floodplain that exists," Christopher Brooks with McCormick Taylor said.
Climate change could be a factor. Some blame recent development, believing now there is no place for the water to go. But engineers say even if there were no development, Ellicott City would still flood.
The community sits at a low point where for creeks feeding the Patapsco River meet.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers looked at another angle -- whether anything could be done to reduce damage to buildings.
"We recommended at the end of our report that if you're able to implement anything, it would be for more passive features -- stuff like flood doors that you wouldn't be actually doing stuff as the flood is coming because there is not enough time," said Marco Ciarla with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Some vow that Ellicott City will rise again, but the question is it worth it to spend millions if another tragedy is only a matter of time?
"I want to come back. I really, really want to, but they have to fix the problem," one woman said.
Ellicott City has been the heart of Howard County for 246 years. To keep it viable, engineers have proposed a large tunnel system, big, dry ponds to hold the water in, and not occupying first floors of some vulnerable buildings on lower Main Street.
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