Waterways of Ellicott City, Maryland

The Historical Society of Baltimore County (HSBC) asked students at Lansdowne High School (LHS) to document the history of flooding in nearby Ellicott City after a second historic flood occurred in 2018 in as many years. HSBC led a collaboration with LHS and Howard County Historical Society, along with numerous local residents, to present this unique perspective on history, community, climate change, and consensus-building. This film received an honorable mention at the 2019 Baltimore County Public School Film Expo in 2019.

It was produced by Josua Saull and Kamren Jones with contributions from Justice Mitchell, Madison Williams, Markayla Black, Dan Hernandez, Charlie Dorsey, Autumn Suter, Chloe House and Gloria Obunadike. Watch the companion choir performance “Take Me to the Water.”

Speaker 1 (00:41): Water, a natural resource for all life, makes up 71% of our planet. We swim in it, we bathe in it, and drink it. Water is what gives us life and without it there would be no life. For thousands of years humans have relied on water to create power and agriculture. However, what can create can also destroy. This is a story of the waterways of Ellicott City.

Speaker 2 (01:10): Ellicott City, the community in Howard County, Maryland, was first founded by the Ellicott brothers in 1772. Residents historically utilized the Patapsco and Tiber rivers to turn mills and generate electricity. Today, this historic downtown, known as Old Ellicott City, is a tourist spot for shops, restaurants, and other residential properties.

Angie Tersiguel (01:32): So originally, when the town was established in the late 1700s, the people here built their homes and community along the Patapsco River. So the town that you see today didn't exist. And when the Patapsco River would flood, it would destroy the town. And so for several floods, the townspeople were rebuilding, and then they finally recognized, "This is not solving our problem. We need to move the town." And that's when the town began to work its way up Main Street as we know it today. But its relationship really correlates with the Ellicott brothers and coming to this town and creating a mill town. What they did was they manipulated the river beds in such a way to speed up the water so that they could create electricity.

David Adler (02:22): Back then, you definitely needed water, and water power, to operate those mails. So after looking up and down the river, this was one of the places they chose and they thought it was a really good area.

Liz Walsh (02:34): It was built along the banks of the Patapsco River because of the power of the water to drive the industry that came here, and that settled here, and that built this town.

David Adler (02:45): The 1800s, they had a big storm in Howard County. I think it was like in the 1860s. It was over 18 inches of water that fell in just a couple of hours in the western part of Howard County. And all of that just drained down here and it flooded Main Street, the lower part. But today, in the past two years, where we've had these floods and there are these cloudbursts that have occurred, they had like eight inches, six to eight inches, of water falling in just two or three hours. And there's nothing that's going to stop the flooding. It doesn't matter what you can do.

Shawn Gladden (03:23): The flood of 1868 transformed the entire Patapsco River Valley. Sykesville used to be on the Howard County side. The 1868 flood completely wiped out Sykesville and when they rebuilt the town, they rebuilt the town on higher ground on the Carroll line side.

David Robeson (03:45): Unfortunately, we knew what we were doing. That's the other thing too, because we knew how to respond to it. The first time it was like, "Okay, what do we do next? What do we do next? We've got to do this. Then we've got to do this. Then we've got to do this." The second time it was just like, "Okay, now just go do it." You know how to do it. You've done it once. It's a combination of all of it. It's just development versus the changing climate versus the geographical location. It's just one of those perfect storm areas that when things align up, it's like you hit the slot machine. But this is not the kind of jackpot that we want to hit. Look at the impact on the town. If it's going to totally destroy your town, what good is it? Because then you just have an empty town with all this flood mitigation, but you've lost that community, you've lost that historicalness of our area. And once, like I said, once you lose that it's gone.

Anjel Scarborough (04:36): The catastrophic flooding we've experienced has also caused a tear in the fabric. Each time there's a major flood there are people who move away, businesses that don't come back, relationships that get frayed out of that. So not addressing the catastrophic flooding, continuing to study, really isn't a realistic option because it will eventually cause the downtown to die.

Angie Tersiguel (05:00): The largest contributing to flooding really is the topography that we're dealing with. It's a steep incline and when we have a lot of rain in a short period of time, which has certainly been our experience in the 2016 and 2018 floods, the water is moving so quickly from the top down that it's creating a wall of water. So there's no time for the ground to absorb the water. And we have a lack of places for that stormwater to go. We don't have appropriate management in place. And even today, let's say for instance we did have what would be classified as appropriate stormwater management. We still wouldn't have enough to hold back the amount of water that these micro storms are creating over our community.

David Adler (05:46): Main Street is nothing more than a big chute going down, and so when that water started getting, two, three, four inches on Main Street at the top, and then it got and more and more because it started clogging the different parts behind the houses. And it just continued to overflow in the main street. And by the time that the storms were over, the water going down Main Street was like 6 feet deep.

Liz Walsh (06:11): Although not perhaps exclusively to blame, land use, and how we've managed stormwater in the past, in the recent past, is to blame. And the good news about that it's something that we can change.

David Adler (06:22): The four streams, it's the amount of water falling at the same time. The way the city is built on the hills and the lack of the right infrastructure. So it all kind of put together.

Speaker 1 (06:33): The floods of 2016 in 2018 were both very significant in their respects. However, the real magnitude and gravitas of the aftermath could be told in statistics. The flooding event of 2016 statistic-wise was the more impactful storm. Well over half a foot of rainfall was measured with just under an inch and a half of it falling in a span of 10 minutes, and over four and a half inches of it falling in the span of an hour. In addition, streams overflowed, some at or near record levels. Some peaked as much as eight and a half feet above flood stage. This was an additional catalyst for all the severe flooding that occurred. With all these statistics, it's unfortunately no surprise that Ellicott City endured the worst damage from flooding it saw in many decades.

Speaker 1 (07:15): The Patapsco River at Ellicott City reached over 1-28 feet. The Patapsco River at Patapsco Valley State Park not only reached major flood stage, but also shattered the previous record. Rainfall totals in many times in Ellicott City were absolutely absurd. And the streams I just mentioned about, eight of the 11 shown on this graph had the top five peak levels on record, peak levels that have not been seen in almost a century.

Speaker 1 (07:38): Yes, there are gaps in records in some of these locations, but to have those water levels in Ellicott City is absolutely insane. Now onto the most recent flooding event that occurred in 2018. The storm that was responsible for this event produced similar rainfall, over half a foot in three hours measured in Ellicott City. In some locations, Doppler radar estimated rainfall totals of nine inches plus. In addition, most streams had some form of moderate flooding. Here are some more graphs to show you. The Hudson branch of Ellicott City had major flooding and a Patapsco at Valley State Park once again had major flooding. However, the Patapsco, Ellicott City saw monitor flooding at modest. With all of this said, the city still managed to flood for now the second time in two years, exposing the issue of being flood-prone and raising more concern that was already high.

Ed Crowl (08:39): I don't have much hope for it. I mean, with what they were talking before about when they're going to tear the buildings down, it still wasn't going to stop the town from flooding. The same amount of water, in my opinion, would still come down and it's just that it wouldn't destroy the buildings if they're gone. But unless they do something at the top of the hill to take care of the water... I forget what they call them, there's not reservoirs, they're like a dam. They dig a big hole for the... Catch the water before it comes down here. I don't have much faith in that right now.

Anjel Scarborough (09:13): Only four people died in the last two floods, but that's four people too many. And so creating an environment where we look at the realities of climate change. The reality is that these storms are getting stronger, more frequent, and adjusting the buildings and the landscape down there so that we can accommodate and adapt to this changing environment until we really take climate change seriously.

Sally Fox Tennant (09:37): The most important thing is that we're out of time. We're running a time crunch. So you don't act for the sake of acting. You don't act out of panic. You don't act out of desperation. You don't let that cloud your vision as to what's best. The plan that was in place only decreased the water heights by about two feet. And that's not sufficient. That is not an answer. We're looking at all alternatives. They've got to take this much further, or this town is doomed.

Speaker 2 (10:06): As of the making this film, there's no final plan to mitigate flood water in Ellicott City. The Kittleman plan to remove historic buildings has been largely set aside, reopening the debate. The new Howard County executive, Calvin Ball, plans to bolster Howard County's emergency public alert system, increase debris removal from streams, and construct upstream flood water retention facilities. While many shops and businesses remain closed, and many historic buildings have their fates undecided, some have reopened and are trying their best to survive the ever-present fear of yet another flood.

Speaker 3 (10:36): Calvin Baldwin, newly elected county executive, has great concerns about his predecessor's five-year flood mitigation plan for Ellicott City. In a WTOP interview, Ball said, "I want to make sure people feel safe in Ellicott City. Work towards getting as much of the water of the streets as quickly as possible, while still preserving the historic character and nature that makes Ellicott City a destination." In all sincerity Ball says, "I want to make sure that, to the extent possible, we can meet all of our goals, which include preserving the historic nature of some of those buildings."

Asset ID: 8618
Themes: Water, waterways, floods, history, urban planning
Date recorded: 2019
Length of recording: 11:17 m
Related traveling exhibition: Water/Ways
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Historical Society of Baltimore County (HSBC)
More information: https://museumonmainstreet.org/blog-node/maryland-students-produce-film-about-historic-flooding-ellicott-city