Burying the Survivors
Photo: Geoffrey Scott Baker , resident of nearby Oella who calls Ellicott City his muse I remember this riddle from middle school days -- "If a plane crashes on the U.S.-Canada border, where would they bury the survivors?" The punchline, of course, is that you don't bury survivors. I was reminded of this when reading Ambitious Ellicott City flood prevention plan would tear down 19 buildings in historic downtown , by Baltimore Sun journalists Sarah Meehan and Jess Nocera. The headline is an accurate summary of what Howard County officials have proposed in response to the devastating floods of July 2016 (see my Flood Flash and and Flood Peak articles) and May 2018 ( Flooding: It's Not in the Cards ). The headline hints at some of the problems with the response of county officials. The plan is indeed ambitious, in the way that Al Capone was ambitious at banks: it contemplates obliterating the victims. The financial cost to be paid by the county would be high, but the...