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The water rose twenty-five feet in two hours. Twenty-five. Jessica Watsula was i
2018 Event

May 27

Maryland Flash Flood: Patapsco River Rises 25 Feet in Two Hours

The water rose twenty-five feet in two hours. Twenty-five. Jessica Watsula was inside La Palapa Grill on Main Street when the Patapsco Valley turned into a canyon rapids on May 27, 2018. She didn't make it out. Cars flipped like toys. Entire first floors of Ellicott City's historic buildings vanished—not damaged, vanished. The town had flooded catastrophically just two years earlier, rebuilt, reopened. And here it was again. Some residents didn't rebuild the second time. Can't fight a river that's learned your address.

May 27, 2018

8 years ago

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