Flood­plains are low land areas that are located next to water bod­ies, includ­ing streams and rivers. Dur­ing increased rain and snow activ­ity, these lands store flood waters and reduce its impact on sur­round­ing areas. It is impor­tant to allow the flood­plain to carry and store flood water in order to pro­tect human life and prop­erty from flood damage.

Dump­ing into our streams and rivers is a vio­la­tion of Howard County Code. Even grass clip­pings and branches can accu­mu­late and plug chan­nels. Also, when you expect a heavy rain or snow event, check that your local storm drains are clear of debris. This will pre­vent water from back­ing up and flood­ing local areas.

Some of the nat­ural and ben­e­fi­cial func­tions of the flood­plain are that they pro­vide nat­ural fil­tra­tion of pol­lu­tants and pro­vide breed­ing and feed­ing areas for wildlife.

The Storm Water Man­age­ment Divi­sion con­ducts a series of activ­i­ties in their effort to warn res­i­dents about flood­ing dur­ing storms.

Local Flood Warn­ing Sys­tem: The County main­tains a local flood warn­ing sys­tem. This sys­tem con­sists of sev­eral rain and stream level gauges (pic­tured above) located through­out the County, which are mon­i­tored dur­ing storms to deter­mine when sig­nif­i­cant flood­ing can be expected. If nec­es­sary, County res­i­dents who live in low lying flood prone areas will be alerted to pos­si­ble flood­ing haz­ards. For infor­ma­tion on Howard County river gauges, visit http://www.afws.net/data/md/Howard.HTM

Local Flood­ing:In Howard County there are scat­tered areas that occa­sion­ally flood. They include, but are not lim­ited to, Main Street, Elkridge, and Allview Estates.

Local Flood Haz­ard Map: The County and local library can pro­vide res­i­dents with flood risk infor­ma­tion using the FEMA Flood Insur­ance Rate Maps (FIRM). These maps show the loca­tions of prop­er­ties rel­a­tive to the flood­plain. You can also visit the County’s Flood Pro­tec­tion web­page to access the County map­ping Geo­graphic Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems and map your loca­tion to deter­mine if you are in a flood area. Also, you can get more infor­ma­tion about whether your prop­erty is located in a flood­plain by call­ing 410.313.6444.

Flood Safety: Howard County dis­trib­utes flood safety infor­ma­tion in the form of book­lets and brochures about prop­erty pro­tec­tion. These brochures can be obtained by call­ing 410.313.6444.

Flood Insur­ance:Flood dam­age is not cov­ered by home­own­ers poli­cies. How­ever, you can pro­tect your home, busi­ness, and belong­ings with flood insur­ance from the National Flood Insur­ance Pro­gram (NFIP). You can buy flood insur­ance no mat­ter what your flood risk. For infor­ma­tion about the NFIP, call 1(800)427‑4661.

Ele­va­tions Cer­tifi­cates: The County main­tains a record of the ele­va­tion cer­tifi­cates for some prop­er­ties within the flood­plain. To deter­mine if your prop­erty has an ele­va­tion cer­tifi­cate on file with the County, call (410) 313‑6444, or visit http://www.co.ho.md.us/DPW/flood_protection.htm.

Per­mit Require­ments and Sub­stan­tial Improvements/Damage: Before you make any improve­ments (build on, alter, regrade, or fill in) on your prop­erty, please check with the Howard County Depart­ment of Inspec­tions, Licenses, and Per­mits (DILP) at (410) 313‑2436 to deter­mine if you are sub­ject to build­ing restric­tions or if the changes you make will alter water drainage and adversely affect other properties.