Friday night’s storm was one for the books.
By the time it was over, the streets on the block were running like rivers and the storm drains were completely overwhelmed. Red House Run creek rose to alarming levels — the wooden footbridge near the school was nearly swallowed by water, and over on Seling Ave where the road crosses the creek, the water had climbed almost to the bottom of the bridge deck. For anyone who’s lived here long enough, you know that’s when it starts to feel serious.
What happens here isn’t complicated. When these storms hit hard and fast, the street runoff has nowhere to go except straight into the storm drains, which empty directly into Red House Run. The creek rises fast. And when you’ve already had weeks of saturated ground from storm after storm, there’s no buffer left.
This summer has been relentless across the whole Baltimore area. On August 5th, a vehicle was trapped in high water on Philadelphia Road right here in Rosedale, and the road flooded at Rosedale and Pulaski Highway. Two days earlier, storms forced multiple rain delays at Camden Yards and prompted flood watches across Baltimore, Prince George’s, and Anne Arundel counties. Going back to July, the National Weather Service was already warning of rainfall rates approaching 2 to 3 inches per hour, noting that the most vulnerable locations would be urbanized areas that had already seen heavy rainfall in recent days.
That’s exactly what Red House Run is — a neighborhood with a creek running through it, sitting at the bottom of a drainage system. When it rains hard, we feel it before most people do.
Keep an eye on the creek when storms roll in. If you see the water getting close to the Seling Ave bridge or the footbridge near the school, post it in the group so neighbors know. Don’t drive through standing water on the low spots — it’s not worth it. And if you’ve got a sump pump, make sure it’s working before the next one hits.