Ellicott City Flood 2018

On May 27, 2018 flash flooding from thunderstorms caused another flood in Ellicott City with as much–or more–water as the flood in 2016. I had actually planned to visit historic Ellicott City that day and park behind the Wine Bin–the parking lot ended up completely flooded. A Reddit user uploaded a video of the flooding, which shows the volume of water flowing down main street: Reddit video of EC flood¹

Following the flood, the town received many donations via “Help Ellicott City” and other organizations in the area. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as well as the Howard County government awarded $1.4 million for future flood prevention and housing damage mitigation for homes in the western part of Ellicott City ². A bill was passed to award $50 million funding for flood mitigation–this funding called for destroying 13 buildings as part of its plan ³. Fortunately, as of 2021, the plan to extend the north tunnel to the Patapsco will save 9 of the 13 buildings which were planned to be destroyed for the projects ⁴. Unfortunately, this construction will not begin until next year at the earliest and will not be completed until 2025.