Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – Maryland’s congressional delegation, state and local Howard County leaders are teaming up to figure out how to prevent future flooding in Ellicott City after Main Street was destroyed by two major floods in two years. They’ll start brainstorming at a joint meeting Monday.
“The meeting should provide some guideposts as to what the next steps are, and that’s why we wanted to gather input from these officials – federal officials as well as local officials – cause that can help inform the plans that we put forward,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
Van Hollen said they’ll be looking to the Army Corps of Engineers for some answers. At Monday’s meeting, the federal agency will present a study it did on the flooding.
The EPA is also expected to aide in the creation of flood mitigation plans according to Van Hollen.
Howard County Council member Jon Weinstein said while Maryland’s congressional delegation has been very supportive of local officials efforts to rebuild and stop mother nature from causing more devastation, he believes the city is falling through the cracks on a broader federal level.
“This disaster is huge for Ellicott City, but in comparison to other disasters that FEMA responds to, it’s rather small,” Weinstein said.
The council member hopes the federal government will step up to the plate and expedite the process of getting relief money to the city.
In the meantime, local officials are taking action to help themselves. Weinstein said after flooding in 2016, the county did a massive study of the entire watershed and identified several projects to mitigate flooding. Work on four of them – including ones that involve collecting and redirecting water – is already underway according to Weinstein.
Other local measures will be discussed at Monday’s meeting, according to Van Hollen, including looking into whether barriers can be built and whether development in the area contributed to the flooding.
While these discussions move forward, Weinstein said flood-ravaged Main Street is coming back to life, with many stores and shops reopen following the May 27th flooding.
Monday’s meeting gets underway at 1 p.m. at the George Howard Building on Court House Drive.
Copyright 2018 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: WMAL/Heather Curtis)
