Older developments and private property often have no way to manage stormwater runoff, Cochran explained. “But we don’t have the best of systems in place.” “We know that the storm and rainfall was exceptional, and that perhaps the best of systems could not have contained all of the runoff,” said Mary Catherine Cochran, executive director of the Patapsco Heritage Greenway. (Map courtesy Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning) According to Cecilia Lane, stormwater coordinator for the Chesapeake Stormwater Network, “Any more than 10 percent impervious cover in the watershed and you will begin to see impacts.”Ībout one-quarter of the Tiber-Hudson watershed is covered by impervious surfaces. The Tiber-Hudson watershed, which includes Ellicott City, is about 21 percent covered by impervious surfaces. Impervious surfaces mean less water can be absorbed into the ground, and as water collects and moves more rapidly runoff becomes more hazardous. The historic nature of a city founded in 1772 means that some of the development-and therefore impervious surface like roads, sidewalks and buildings-was built before managing stormwater runoff was considered a necessity. “The unfortunate thing for Ellicott City is we are the bottom of the bowl,” he said. the morning after the flood signing up volunteers and taking donations. He is a longtime community organizer, sits on the board for the Ellicott City Partnership’s Clean Green and Safe Committee, works at the B&O Museum and was out on Main Street at 6 a.m. Steep slopes surrounding the historic downtown area that saw the most severe damage, adding a unique and recognizable landscape but also creating challenges during big storms.Įd Lilley grew up in Ellicott City and has worked on Main Street most of his career. The bridge over the Patapsco River in Ellicott City, Maryland, remained closed September 9, 2016, after stormwater runoff and heavy rainfall made the river rise 13 feet in 100 minutes during the July 30 flood. The large-scale damage on Main Street that the flood left in its wake was immediately apparent: cars belonging to patrons of restaurants like Tersiguel’s piled in the Patapsco River, debris lines that reached past the first story of some buildings and large chunks of sidewalk and building foundations eroded away. the next morning on the banks of the Patapsco River. She managed to escape but he did not his body was found about 8:30 a.m. Joseph Blevins and his girlfriend, Heather Owens, were in her car when the water overwhelmed them. She was swept away and killed by the surge. Jessica Watsula, mother to a 10 year-old, left Portalli’s Italian restaurant after a night out when she was caught in the wall of water that had taken over Main Street. Heroic citizens rescued a woman from her car on Main Street as the water surged around them, but tragedy visited the historic downtown area as well. The bank collapsed during the July 30 floods. Part of a stormwater retention pond was fenced off at the Burgess Mill Station development on September 11, 2016. the Patapsco rose 13 feet, turning a normally serene river into a tree uprooting, bank-eroding, debris-carrying monster for miles. Just over six inches of rain fell in only two hours and by 9:00 p.m. At some point the bank of a retention pond at the Burgess Mill Station residential development breached, sending the water it was containing careening downhill towards Main Street. Walls of water swept down driveways, streets and parking lots in downtown Ellicott City it filled basements and first stories of buildings and launched cars into shop windows. Runoff coursed through the many tributary streams of the Patapsco River that carve down steep slopes around historic downtown Ellicott City. on Saturday, July 30, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning as a thunderstorm lumbered east across Maryland. "I didn't lose possessions or a business but you still feel a loss when you've been here that long," he said. His family has roots to this community dating back to 1878 and almost all of his professional life has centered around Main St. Ed Lilley looks down the under-construction Main Street in his hometown of historic Ellicott City.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |