ANNAPOLIS – With tons of snow sitting on frozen ground, and forecasts calling for rain and several days of above-40 temperatures, Maryland Emergency Management Agency officials worry that the state could be facing a repeat of the 1996 floods.
“(This weekend) has the potential to be pretty bad,”
said Quentin Banks, a spokesman for the state emergency agency.
In 1996, the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided over $8 million in aid to the state after floods hit northern and Western Maryland.
The National Weather Service forecast for this weekend is not concrete yet, but there will probably be some flooding, mostly in urban streets, said Rich Hitchens, a senior forecaster with the service.
“I would say the potential is there for this to be significant, but the bells aren’t going off” like they did in 1996, he said.
Allegany County is still waiting to see exactly what the weather is going to do, said Ron Frye, assistant director of the county’s Emergency Services and Communications Department. The county is right on the edge of the rain/snow line, he said, and while more snow wouldn’t be that big a deal, rain could be a real problem.
“A mile either way could make a big difference,” Frye said. “We’re just trying to get a handle on the weather.”
Charles County is expecting an inch of rain and probably some road flooding, but that is not the only problem, said Donald McGuire, the county’s director of Emergency Services. In addition to the ice and snow, trees felled by last April’s tornado are still damming some creeks and streams, which increases the risk of floods, he said.
Customers at Cumberland Concrete are starting to talk about the possibility of flooding, but there has not been an increase in sandbag sales, said Craig Miller, safety director for the Allegany County store.
But some businesses are making plans, he said. One car dealership had already asked if it could use the concrete company’s lot for car storage in an emergency, Miller said.
Frye said common sense and foresight are the best defenses against a flood, and fresh memories of the 1996 floods are helpful in that regard.
In general, he said, people living in a flood-prone area should pay attention at any time to weather alerts on the radio, keep their car’s gas tank full and have a bag ready in case they need to leave quickly.
Both county and state officials said homeowners need to make sure that drainage ditches and storm drains are clear so runoff has someplace to go. They also urged owners of buildings with flat roofs to clear off snow and ice to avoid the risk of having the roof collapse.