Weeks of rain prior to a short, concentrated burst of showers over Ellicott City, Maryland, primed historic Main Street for a devastating flash flood that occurred over Memorial Day weekend — wiping out parts of the area for the second time in two years in a “once-every-1,000-year flood” and leaving one person still reported missing.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said the event was a “once-every-1,000-year flood,” and meteorologists put the chances of such an occurrence at one-tenth of 1 percent.
“Because we had a lot of rain [in the past two weeks], the ground is relatively saturated and so it might only take an inch per hour or an inch and a half per hour rate to make things flood,” said Kevin Whitt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service out of Sterling, Virginia.
More rain is expected later in the week with the potential for more flooding, Mr. Whitt said, but the threat of flash floods should be relatively low.
On Sunday, most of the 8 inches of rain that fell in Ellicott City — about 12 miles west of Baltimore — occurred during a three-hour window. Videos shared on social media showed rapid muddy waters thrashing down the village’s historic Main Street, sweeping cars down away.
Mr. Hogan described Main Street as “dangerous” with open manholes and collapsed buildings.
No fatalities have been reported, but at least one person is still missing, Howard County Police said Monday. Army National Guardsmen Eddison Alexander Hermond, 39, of Severn, Maryland, was reportedly last seen at 5:20 p.m. Sunday around a Mexican grill on Main Street, only a few hundred feet from some of the worst damage of the storm.
During an early morning press briefing Monday, Howard County Executive Allan H. Kittleman was emotional discussing the situation, saying he believes the damage has exceeded a devastating flood that occurred in the city only two years earlier.
“I don’t think I’m without exaggeration saying that this is worse than July 30, 2016,” he said, where two people were killed and approximately $10 million in damages occurred.
“I can tell you my heart is broken thinking about what the people had gone through here and people’s lives who were devastated two years ago, and they rebuilt, and now they’re faced with the same daunting task again.”
It took about three months for many of the over 140 businesses on Main Street to reopen after the 2016 flood. Local resident and business owner Nathan Sowers told The Associated Press Monday he was feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of rebuilding again.
“We’ll see. It takes a lot of money and a lot of time,” he said, but added that other locals were laughing and joking Monday morning, keeping spirits high.
Earlier this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded Maryland over $1 million for flood-mitigation efforts, with Mr. Hogan saying it took two years to secure that funding and that “it’s ironic that we just got it this month.”
He added the state had provided about $5 million in loans and assistance to Ellicott City in the aftermath of the 2016 flood.
“No body expected another storm of this magnitude to come through two years later because, as I said, they were only supposed to happen every 1,000 years,” Mr. Hogan said.
Only a week earlier, Mr. Kittleman announced improved flood-warning systems for Ellicott city in a press conference, where he was joined by officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the National Weather Service.
The initiative, planned to start in June, included dozens of advanced sensors along the river banks. It is one part of a master plan formulated in 2015 to make the city more resilient.
At the press conference Monday, Mr. Kittleman said priorities now are focused on people affected by the flood and not about what mitigation efforts have been done.
“Tonight is about people’s lives who are devastated, about people who need our help, we can talk about that in the future,” he said.
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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