Ellicott City has the hydrologic misfortune of being located where three streams come together in a narrow valley. Of course, precipitation records are nowhere near long enough to tell us about 0.1% probabilities, so what can really be said is that this rain event was unprecedented in the 100-200 or so years of records we have for the site.īeing caught in a record-breaking deluge is enough to put a damper on a Saturday evening out, but being caught in that sort of rain storm on Main Street of Ellicott City is a disaster. We often call this a 1000-year storm, but just because it happened in 2016 t ells us nothing about whether it will happen again in 2017, so probability is a better way of expressing that. (Sorry, the puns just write themselves.) No official records are kept in Ellicott City, but based on nearby records, the rain event has a probability of something like 0.1% in any given year. This amount of rain in such a short time blows our precipitation records out of the water. These 3h amts are off the charts! /GpsxQKh829Ģ4 hr observed precipitation through 8am this morning /c69dI12g8i Quick rainfall analysis resulting in J#ellicottcity #flashflood. Some estimates of the rainfall amounts are even higher, but all show Ellicott City as the bullseye of the downpour: Washed away in the torrents.Įllicott City had received 4.5 inches of rain between 7:30 and 8:30 pm and more than 6.5 inches of rain over the course of the evening. Rescued people via human chains and via emergency responders. Harrowing tails of escapes upstairs, up ladders, and uphill. Sidewalks buckled, ripped away, and collapsed. First floors of stores and restaurants covered in mud, with 200 buildings damaged, some probably beyond repair. csaPnHED09Ĭars washed away and stacked on top of each other ( imbricated in the flow direction). Just got to walk down Main Street in Ellicott City. uqHvlMK6n4īy the light of day, the extent of the damage became clear. WOW H/T Meteorologist Justin Berk and Historic Ellicot City Inc flooding in Ellicott City #Maryland. And then it began to rain really really hard. I remember a fun evening out there a few years after college, when I had a mini-reunion with my roommates.īut this Saturday evening it started to rain.

Sourced from Wikimedia.Įllicott City is well-known in the Baltimore-Washington area for its historic downtown with a wide selection of shops and restaurants, which would likely have been quite popular on Saturday evening. Photo by Scott Sagihirian used under a Creative Commons license.

Ellicott city flood map