Sunday’s Baltimore brunch trip turned out to be unexpectedly hazardous.
I was aware of the threat of afternoon showers when I left for Baltimore, but I didn’t think much of it. Washington has been a soggy mess for the past two weeks — a few more drops can’t hurt, right?
Well, we could see the storm coming from the brunch patio, and things got bad pretty quickly.
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor right before a massive rainstorm.
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor right before a massive rainstorm.
Dodging the storm
We left Little Havana’s and made it to Grand Central before the storm hit.
This was the worst downpour that I have been in since my days in Miami — there it would rain almost every afternoon in the summers. Luckily, unlike the typical Miami storm, I didn’t get caught outside this time.
Downpour in downtown Baltimore, Maryland.
Lounging on the patio
Grand Central has a covered patio, so we enjoyed post-brunch beers outside. I then ran to the CVS across the street to fetch umbrellas so Michael, Krystal and I could continue our tour of the city.
The rain persisted throughout the afternoon, but eventually tapered off. We only knew something was wrong when Facebook asked us to mark ourselves safe for “The Flooding in the Greater Baltimore Area.” Did the small amount of street flooding really warrant a Facebook emergency page?
Well, apparently Ellicott City (one of the Baltimore suburbs) suffered catastrophic flash flooding that may have killed someone. A similar flood happened in Ellicott City two years ago, leaving two people dead (and that was supposed to be a 1,000-year flood.)
Fortunately things were not nearly as bad in downtown Baltimore, and we didn’t experience anything more hazardous than some localized street flooding. Next time, we travel for brunch, we’ll pay more attention to the forecast. ☔
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