A sudden and intense storm rocked a quiet Maryland town recently, causing catastrophic damage and several deaths. In a Grist.org blog post, Andrea Thompson reports “the streets of Ellicott City, Maryland became raging rivers …”, “with cars tossed around like toy boats after nearly six inches of rain fell in just two hours.” The National Weather Service characterized that rainfall as “a 1-in-1,000 year event for the area.”

While you can’t control the weather, you can prepare your property for the increasingly frequent and progressively more intense weather events we have recently witnessed. While you may think what happened in a developed area like Ellicott City has no similarities to rural streams, the basic principles are the same. The area was not prepared to absorb an above average rain event. Instead, it deflected and conveyed surging waters elsewhere, creating forceful flooding capable of much damage.

On the other hand, healthy streams with properly connected floodplains have been proven to withstand extreme weather events much better than degraded resources. Streams with connected floodplains can adsorb increased water flows and have been shown to create less downstream damage than streams that are not connected to their floodplain.

If you are interested in learning more about proven, sustainable improvements that can prepare your streams and floodplains for disastrous events like these, contact the Trout Headwaters team at 800-218-8107 or complete the simple form below.

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