Surveillance cameras captured destruction
Landlord’s network recorded flooding that devastated Ellicott City
Early one mid-May morning, heavy rain awoke Ron Peters and sent him fumbling for his iPad.
On the screen, a network of live video feeds revealed Ellicott City was not flooding.
The views came from a $13,000 network of cameras Peters had just installed around the historic Main Street corridor so he could keep tabs on several properties he owns there. Two weeks later, the cameras showed a different picture.
They captured every moment of the devastating flooding on May 27, as the Tiber and Hudson branches overflowed channel walls, carrying muddy water and mountains of debris through the old mill town for asecond time in two years.
One feed shared widely on Facebook showed a dam gradually forming out of branches and a piece of a fence — then a dumpster, a yellow taxi and one sedan after another.
Peters had shared access to the feeds with Howard County officials just weeks earlier, so they were able to watch the footage live in their emergency operations center. They say it allowed them to keep See CAMERAS, page 8
On the screen, a network of live video feeds revealed Ellicott City was not flooding.
The views came from a $13,000 network of cameras Peters had just installed around the historic Main Street corridor so he could keep tabs on several properties he owns there. Two weeks later, the cameras showed a different picture.
They captured every moment of the devastating flooding on May 27, as the Tiber and Hudson branches overflowed channel walls, carrying muddy water and mountains of debris through the old mill town for asecond time in two years.
One feed shared widely on Facebook showed a dam gradually forming out of branches and a piece of a fence — then a dumpster, a yellow taxi and one sedan after another.
Peters had shared access to the feeds with Howard County officials just weeks earlier, so they were able to watch the footage live in their emergency operations center. They say it allowed them to keep See CAMERAS, page 8
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