Flooding

The Octoraro creek will fluctuate during the year with the amount of discharge that is produced. Fall and spring seem to be some of the highest discharge periods out of the year, showing that precipitation in this region is greater during these seasons. Summer being a dryer part of the year with less precipitation tends to be the lowest point, and winter months are moderate with a tendency of increasing towards spring.

 Soure: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/md/nwis/uv/?site_no=01578475&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060,62620,00062,00054

The height of the creek parallels the discharge graph with seasonal precipitation variations. The severe spikes in height are most likely from hurricanes or tropical storms that have hit the watershed. This will usually cause roads to be flooded out and damage to bridges as well as residential properties in the flood plain.

Source: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/md/nwis/uv/?site_no=01578475&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060,62620,00062,00054

 Tropical storm Lee hit the region in September of 2011 and caused some major flooding, especially down river. The image is of a town called Port Deposit, which is just south of the Octoraro creek mouth, along the Susquehanna river. Multiple boaters can be seen, along with a submerged truck in the background on main street. This is not an uncommon occurrence for the small town. Whenever an exorbitant amount of precipitation occurs in the Susquehanna watershed (which includes the Octoraro creek) and the majority of gates have to be open on the Conowingo Dam, Port Deposit will often times experience some degree of flooding. One of the worst occasions was from Tropical storm Agnes in 1972 that saturated the watershed for multiple days. It resulted in all 53 gates to the dam being open and charges set to blow a portion of it, so the water would not over top the dam and blow it completely out causing insurmountable damage to the towns below. Fortunately it didn't come to that, but the whole town of Port filled with several feet of water and sediment, resulting in $10 million dollars worth of damages. 

Source: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-sept-9-2011-port-deposit-maryland-us-mark-dennis-smiles-as-he-comments-43003636.html

Source: https://www.cecildaily.com/our_cecil/when-agnes-came-to-call/article_8a28b6a1-c81f-59a3-b4e0-aba132bcbed2.html