Floodwaters rushed down the city’s Main Street and in a dramatic scene people formed a human chain to rescue a woman who was trapped in a auto.
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The bodies of two people, a man and a woman, were found in the aftermath, one in the river, officials said.
Ellicott City – located roughly 14 miles west of Baltimore – was hit by almost six inches of rain in less than two hours.
But he didn’t have flood insurance on his merchandise, he said, which looked like it was a total loss.
“Cars everywhere, sidewalks missing, roads partially gone, utility poles down, cars on top of cars”, Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman said of the scene.
Hogan, who visited the disaster area on Sunday, said that officials “are coordinating all available resources to address this emergency as quickly as possible”. The Patch community platform covers communities across the state.
The meteorological cause of Ellicott City’s epic flood was complex, a mixture of high humidity, unstable air, southerly wind flow, a nearby warm front and other factors as noted by the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang.
Kittleman said he would never forget the video of residents forming a human chain to rescue a person trapped in a auto in the rising water. Their auto was swept away and Watsula was the only one who didn’t make it out of the vehicle safely.
“As soon as Gov. Hogan gives it to me, I will get it to the president within the hour”, Mikulski said.
The Patapsco River rose 14 feet in 90 minutes during its peak around 9 p.m. Saturday, The Baltimore Sun reported. “All I can say is, I’m just happy to be alive”.
Police say a Pennsylvania woman visiting the town with her family was one of those killed after their vehicle was caught in the raging floodwaters and carried toward the Patapsco River.
The county has evaluated 200 of the buildings downtown and found that four or five are destroyed, while another 20 to 30 are heavily damaged, said Robert Frances, director of the of the county Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits.
Kittleman is confident that help will roll in: “We have a very generous community in Howard County and Ellicott City”.
Severely damaged were antique shops, restaurants, a toy store and a beloved bar steps from the Patapsco River that local officials say opened their doors to feed rescue crews who responded to a fatal train derailment, the small city’s last disaster.
The flood also tore away portions of the street and many storefronts, leaving the town in a shambles.
Officials are branding this the worst flooding they have ever seen hit the historic town.
“I could be one of those people”, he said.
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There can 1-in-1,000 year flood events, but that was not necessarily the case in Ellicott City: This was a 1-in-1,000-year rain event.
