ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — Thursday marks a decade since the 2016 flood that devastated the historic mill town, costing both livelihoods and lives.
If you look closely, nestled among the rocks of the Patapsco are a reminder of its deadly potential: bricks torn off buildings when, 10 years ago, the waters swelled under a stalled thunderstorm, the iconic main street of Old Ellicott City turning into a raging rush of water.
10 years since devastating 2016 Ellicott City flood
Longtime neighbor Ken McNaughton remembers it well.
"That was scary seeing, seeing how close it was to me and might come and get me because people lost their lives,” he recalled.
While the city has been able to rebuild, two families have been left with a never-ending hole in their hearts.
Joseph Blevins and Jessica Watsula did not survive that night.
“I feel like all the big things that you want your father there for happened after he passed,” Hailey Baker said.
Baker is the eldest of Joe Blevins’ three children. She was 16 years old at the time of his death.
She remembers him as a devoted dad to all three of them, and taking extra care of her youngest sister, Ashlyn, who is special needs.
“He could make her giggle like nobody else in this world,” Baker said.
Even living a state away, she says, he always made it to events big and small. But this past decade, she’s lived some of life’s biggest milestones without him, like her graduations and her wedding.
“We make cardboard cutouts of him for all those special events,” she said. “It feels kind of like he's still here, but it's tough, you know. Not having someone there to share with you, those special moments and, tell me: ‘Hey, I’m proud of you.’”
For 10 years, Curtis Brubaker Jr. has come back to Ellicott City to leave roses for his Watsula, his sister. Wearing the same outfit that he was wearing that night to search for her body.
“This is just a little little moment where I kind of reflect on what happened, reflect on her life a little bit and just it's something I do to keep her name, her spirit alive,” he said. “As long as I’m able, people will probably see roses popping up down here every anniversary or every February 15th.”
That’s Watsula’s birthday; she was 35 years old.
Blevins was 37.
He would have been a grandfather; Baker named her daughter “Hannah Joe” in his honor.
"Keeps me going," Baker said. “I see a lot of characteristics of him in my children, and just wondering like what he would be like as a grandfather, considering he was such an amazing dad to me."
Watsula also leaves behind a daughter, Sarah.
The county has spent top dollar on flood solutions to make sure it never costs another life again. A project a decade later still underway.
“The disaster is instantaneous, but the recovery is long-term,” McNaughton said.