UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR #3: Howard County 911. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: Torrential rain sent water rushing into Ellicott City yesterday for the second time in less than two years. And I don't feel that way anymore (laughter). TERSIGUEL: There was a very short period of time that I could look back and think, like, wow. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: A major announcement for downtown Ellicott City 10 weeks after the devastating floods killed two people and washed away homes and businesses - tomorrow Main Street will be open for business. KITTLEMAN: Ellicott City will be rebuilt, Ellicott City will be reopened, and Main Street will continue to be a vibrant town for many, many decades to come. HERSHER: Allan Kittleman was the county executive at the time, the closest thing the town has to a mayor. So everyone - business owners, residents, even the governor of Maryland - seemed focused on the same thing - getting back to normal as quickly as possible.ĪLLAN KITTLEMAN: It's been 13 days since the devastating flood. The storm had been an act of God, a crazy thing, a thousand-year flood. But there was also a clarity after the flood. For the next few weeks, to get to her building, Angie had to walk by a cute little bridge stuffed underneath with cars and gutters and dumpsters. HERSHER: It was kind of hard to even comprehend what had happened - 8 feet of white water in the street. TERSIGUEL: I look back on that time, and I think, God, we were really tested - like, really tested.
The kitchen was in shambles - every chair in the dining room, the carpet, the entire wine cellar. HERSHER: Angie Tersiguel and her husband own a restaurant on Main Street. Their bodies were found the next day more than two miles downstream. And when the water went down, the police found out that two people who had been driving when the flood started had been swept away. HERSHER: Finally, they found a set of stairs and a closet in the back and were able to get out, but the coffee shop and dozens of other businesses were gutted. UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR #1: What's happening, ma'am? SMITH: We were afraid the place we were going to go was down. UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR #1: What's going on? SMITH: I remember telling the 911 operator that the floor was buckling. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: There's people in the water. UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR #1: We are currently underwater, and I have about 15 to 30 people in here, and we are trapped inside. UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR #2: Howard County 911. HERSHER: It happened fast - like, 15 minutes - for Main Street to go from wet to a raging river. UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR #1: What's your address? UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We are at Bean Hollow in old Ellicott City on Frederick Road. UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR #1: Ma'am, what's going on? And then we see the water going down the street start to get a little bit higher until it's up to the curb of the sidewalk. SMITH: So it started raining, and - no big deal. HERSHER: In July 2016, Rachel Smith had just graduated from high school, and she was working at a coffee shop on Main Street called Bean Hollow. RACHEL SMITH: I think the rain started around 6. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Just incredible amounts of rain in the Ellicott City area. HERSHER: Ellicott City feels special to the people who live there, which is why what's happening there is so scary. TENNANT: It's one of the best cities in the state of Maryland, a great destination for people all over the nation. HERSHER: If you talk to Sally for more than, like, five minutes, she'll tell you what I now think of as the motto of historic Ellicott City. Like, for the last 30-something years, the best way to catch up with Sally Tennant was to just walk into her store Discoveries, which I've done a lot in the last year. It's a small place, the kind of neighborhood where most interactions happen face-to-face and neighbors tend to be friends. Now there's about half a mile of restaurants and boutiques that are much more charming because you can hear the water as you window-shop.
The original buildings down here were mills. And when you get to the bottom, the rivers converge around Main Street, and then they dip down and go under the buildings. REBECCA HERSHER, BYLINE: No matter which way you come when you drive into old Ellicott City in Maryland, you have to go down a long, long hill with rivers on all sides. It's called Ellicott City, and she has watched as the people who live and work on the town's main street have struggled to save the place they love before it's too late. NPR's Rebecca Hersher has spent the last year visiting a small community in Maryland that's facing an existential threat from flash floods. Now a story about what happens when climate change hits Main Street.
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