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Sunday, June 03, 2018

After 2nd Major Flood in 2 Years, Maryland City Ponders Whether to Rebuild Again

Residents, merchants and officials in Ellicott City on Monday began to examine the devastation wrought by floods that coursed through the historic mill town the night before _ the second time in less than two years.

Old Ellicott City's Main Street remained blocked off Monday, as crews walked up and down the street inspecting buildings. Police were looking for a man who was reported missing during the flooding Sunday. Cars were planted upside down and on their sides in streams and along the road, and a crane tow truck was brought in to lift them out. Utility workers began to restore power, fix a broken water line and bypass a broken sewer pipe.

Many quickly began to ask the question: Should we rebuild again?

At Tersiguel's French Country Restaurant, owner Michel Tersiguel knew immediately that he would repair and reopen his restaurant, a longtime destination restaurant for special occasions and French class field trips. He was on the phone with a contractor Sunday night.

"Time to rebuild, that's it," Tersiguel said. "It's no question for us. We rebuilt the building last time, so that helped. ... Our plan is to get it as soon as the county lets us in."

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20 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's only a matter of time before Salisbury gets hit like this!! One would think Jake day would learn from things like this and do something to prevent such tragedy here. But hey we need some ghetto culture this fall the hell with preventive maintenance. As a former military man it tells alot about Jake day and his military service. Preventive maintenance is priority

Anonymous said...

What has changed around Ellicott City to cause these floods? Hasn't that town been around for a few hundred years?

Anonymous said...

1:06-Salisbury doesn't have the elevation variance to deal with, which would cause the flooding torrent. We would only have high water. You cannot prevent nature, Jake Day would be powerless, so for once you can leave him out of it. You seem just angry for the sake of being angry.

1:30-It has been dubbed the 1,000 year storm, but has occurred twice now, which would suggest it has been a very, very long time since the last time this happened.

Back in 2012 Ocean City got about 12 inches in an hour, which was more rain that hit Ellicott City on both occasions. The good news about the shore, it really just flooded out the roads, which blocked all ways in and out of Berlin. Except the route I found to get out by Harrison and Germantown RD.

Anonymous said...

Just my guess: The ridiculous amount of homes being built around the town. They have removed so many acres of trees etc.

Anonymous said...

More development uphill bu Howard County, water cant absorb into concrete. Runoff has nowhere to go but downhill. Couple that with extreme weather events and there ya go

Anonymous said...

Yes the town itself has been around for hundred years but the outlying home that have been put in the last 20 or so years have changed how water is handled and flows when you get rain. Engineers are not good at predicting Mother Nature next move when it comes to weather

Anonymous said...

It's been flooding like this in Ellicott City for 50 years that I know of.
From Wiki- Ellicott City has had major devastating floods in 1817, 1837, 1868,[58] 1901, 1917, 1923, 1938, 1942, 1952, 1956, 1972 (Hurricane Agnes), 1975 (Hurricane Eloise), 1989, 2011, 2016, and 2018."

This is a list of the *major* floods. In my lifetime (over 50 years) I can recall another 20-30 times minor (a couple of feet deep as opposed to nearly to the 2nd story of buildings) flooding has occurred.

Anonymous said...

1:06 PM did you fail geography? I suggest you bring up a few maps to see why this will never happen here vs why it happened there.

Anonymous said...

1:30 PM Geoengineering

Anonymous said...

As bright and sunshiney they make it sound in the article, they fail to address that their insurance companies will stop insuring them and because they have previous claims it will be hugely expensive to get insurance in that location again.

How many times do you think their insurance carrier is going to allow themselves to get burned?

Anonymous said...

"As bright and sunshiney they make it sound in the article, they fail to address that their insurance companies will stop insuring them and because they have previous claims it will be hugely expensive to get insurance in that location again.

How many times do you think their insurance carrier is going to allow themselves to get burned?"


I thought the same thing, 3:05, until I realized it's *flood insurance* that covers this. Flood insurance is a Federal program and, as long as the premium is paid, it can not be denied not matter the flood history. We taxpayers are paying for this and there is nothing we can do to stop these fools from rebuilding in the same place!

Anonymous said...

Flood insurance is govt isn’t it??

Anonymous said...

Old town Ellicot City is in a ravine. Just sayin

Anonymous said...

3:17 PM I follow and am not debating you = but if they are not in a flood plain and this is a 1000 year flood then why would they even have flood insurance.

I dont have flood ins and if by some freak storm get flooded I am up a creek because it is not offered in non flood areas.

Anonymous said...

Right flood insurance is federally subsidized. I do know and it's been 5 or 6 years ago someone who has a business there told me the landlord pays $8000/yr for it. That's about right and same as some lower DE property owners are paying several miles even away from the ocean. It could be more now. The building isn't even that big. It's a 2 story maybe 3000/sq ft total.

Anonymous said...

Water runs down hill people
Just a thought

Anonymous said...

702 - hahahahaha, thanks for that!

Anonymous said...

224
Have you heard of weather modification?
Try reading a bit . . .

Geoengineeringwatch.org

Anonymous said...

I wish Slumsbury would get hit like they did, we could use a damn good washing for this pigsty city!

Anonymous said...

Twelve inches of rain in one hour? That’s one inch every 5 minutes. I don’t think so.