Hdraulic and stormwater experts hold that stormwater management is most effective in the head-water area and least effective at the bottom of a stream. It isn't clear how the demolition of those buildings would prevent overflow water to once again run in the street and damage buildings, possibly in a hereto unknown manner.īoarded and weakened: Businesses wrecked by the flood and now In some cases its only a rear addition that would have to be be removed to open up the channel. Some buildinsg proposed for demo don't even span over the Tiber. While this may be true, other buildings upstream cover the Tiber as well and are not proposed for demolition. The logic seems to be, that once the upstream pinch-points have been removed, water wouldn't fit in the channel behind those 10 buildings because some span over it. True, Kittleman's suggested plan includes widening those "pinch-points" and also two shortcut culverts to be drilled underground that would direct water on a direct route into the Patapsco. What destroyed them was the water rushing down the middle of Main Street because narrow culverts half a mile upstream didn't have anywhere near the necessary capacity to keep the water in the stream channels of the Hudson and the Tiger. Neither floods coming from below nor from above are made any worse by the presence of these buildings. ![]() It is blaming the victim instead of the perpetrator. It is as if one would remove the sidewalks downstream from a popular watering hole so that the drunk drivers can't mow down any pedestrians. Removing those buildings does not reduce the flood, it only removes the damage that those floods cause on the those buildings. including Phoenix Emporium, Portalli's, the Bean Hollow coffee shop and former Caplan's building) on the last few hundred feet of a fairly large watershed entailing several square miles is not really medicine at all. Slated for demolition all the way back to the Caplan Store signįoremost, taking down 10 buildings (8049 to 8125 Main St. ![]() Well, sometimes the medicine is worse than the disease. What is not to like about it? It turns out plenty. He has a big plan and apparently big money, too. So here was finally a courageous leader, to face the truth. Even since the 2018 flood in May of this year, Ellicott City had been once more evacuated when the channels filled to the edge in yet another deluge, before the water receded again just in time before the spill would have once again run through the street. Since then no less than 13 other floods, mostly coming from the Patapso River up and not from the hills down, have caused havoc at regular intervals. Our need to adapt to this likelihood and our need to first and foremost protect life safety has changed the conversation.” KittlemanĬouch strategists had long suggested to give in to nature which time and again had sought the small town out for devastating floods. A1868 flood washed away 14 houses, killing at least 39 people. “I wish we weren’t here, but this a change that we need. In 2016, we were told that the flood that struck our town had a one-in-a-thousand chance of occurring, then not even two years later it happened again and it was even worse. But when an even bigger flood hit only two years later, Kittleman was no longer setting on doubling down and re-building. Indeed, Kittleman had used those terms after the flood of 2016. When did a politician running for election ever announce such a bold and move that was bound to create a fierce backlash? When in the face of calamity had a politician not resorted to the usual "we (fill in the name of a place) do not give up, we are resilient, we stand together and we will rebuild better than ever before". ![]() This was an unusual announcement in many ways. Turned antique store, destroyed in 2016 and in 2018, last used Two house wide 1926 Caplan Department Store long What he announced would change the town more profoundly that almost anything in its history before, catastrophes included: A plan to wipe out the entire eastern half of Main Street from the stately Caplan department store building all the way to the historic train station of 1830. On August 23 he stood on Ellicott City's historic Main Street and said in an almost Lutheran pose ("Here I stand, I can do no other") he wished he didn't have to be there. In the fall of 2018 Howard County Executive Alan Kittleman stands for re-election. Founded only 43 years after Baltimore in 1772 and four years before the United States were born, Ellicott City with the oldest train station in the nation has survived 246 years of milling, commerce, floods, and fires.
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