Ellicott city flood9/28/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Miller has a particular interest in the role floods play in shaping stream channels and the local ecosystem. “Therefore, nobody should be surprised that water power is a potential hazard.”įaculty in UMBC’s geography and environmental systems (GES) department have been studying the local watershed for years. “Ellicott City was put there for a reason, to take advantage of water power,” says Andrew Miller, professor of geography and environmental systems. But when storms come, as they inevitably do, it becomes very dangerous, very quickly. The Howard County government is faced with a dilemma, too: Ellicott City is a popular attraction and has been an economic powerhouse in the county for decades. The events, both dubbed “1000-year floods” in the media, have left residents and business owners with the tough decision to stay or go. In 2016, and then, extraordinarily, again in the spring of 2018, Historic Ellicott City was ravaged by flash floods that trapped diners in restaurants’ upper stories, saw empty cars and trucks careening down Main Street, destroyed homes and businesses, left debris for miles downstream, and, in total, took three lives. Photo: Jerry Jackson, permission from Baltimore Sun Media. Main Street in Ellicott City is seen from above the day after a flash flood devastated the historic city on the Patapsco River. Rather than workaday folk gathering sundries on Main Street, droves of tourists and preservation enthusiasts now stroll the charming byway to patronize boutique shops and cafés. It was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1968, and the Main Street area, which retains over 200 historic buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.īut while much has stayed the same, much has also changed since Ellicott Mills’ 19th-century heyday. Today, Wilkins Rogers Mills still processes flours and cornmeal on the old site, and the B&O rail station at Ellicott City is the oldest surviving rail station in the United States. Housing and shops quickly sprang up along the winding street to service residents and visitors. The mill town flourished in the 1800s and was the first stop on the Baltimore and Ohio Main Line railroad (the first railroad in the United States) beginning in 1831. All that water power made it the perfect place to build a mill town-as brothers Jonathan and George Ellicott did beginning in 1772. In the aftermath of two “1000-year” floods in three years, can experts, officials, and residents agree on a way to prevent the next big one while preserving this historic town?Įllicott City, Maryland, rests in a steep, narrow valley at the confluence of the Tiber River, its smaller unnamed tributaries, and the much larger Patapsco River.
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