Recovery and cleanup is underway on historic Main Street after the sidewalk caved in due to overnight flooding in Ellicott City, Md., on Sunday.
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Newly released audio of 911 calls reveals the distress and panic of people trapped in businesses and homes as raging floodwaters overtook Ellicott City’s Main Street on Saturday night, damaging buildings, sweeping away scores of vehicles and killing two stranded motorists.
Devastating flooding has damaged almost every home and business along Main Street of Ellicott City, according to officials.
Displaced residents were originally scheduled to have access to their homes between 12:30 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
After deadly floods in central Maryland, Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman says he’s tapped the county’s planning department to draft a master plan to address flood-prone areas in order to prevent future disasters. “It has never been close to being this bad”, he said. The rescue officials discovered their bodies about two miles down the Patapsco River in Baltimore County. He regained his footing and then formed a human chain with at least two other men.
At the height of flash flooding, a woman was spotted stranded in her auto as gallons of water rushed past, threatening to was her and her vehicle far away.
Jessica Watsula, 35, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and Anthony Blevin, 38, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, were identified by Howard and Baltimore counties as the victims who died in the flood, according to The Baltimore Sun.
“I don’t think there’s any firm estimate or even an estimate”, Kittleman said.
But overall, extreme rainfall is not necessarily one of the weather events that can be definitively linked to climate change with a high level of confidence, the most comprehensive report on the subject said earlier this year.
People watching the horror unfold jumped into action, forming human chains to rescue those trapped. “That tells me that’s what people in Howard County are like”, he said. He then carried her as the water ran past both of them.
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Videos posted on social media showed floodwaters rushing down Main Street, which slopes dramatically toward the river, and sweeping away cars.
