Ellicott City is prone to flooding as it is positioned at the foot of the Tiber and Patapsco Rivers in eastern/central Maryland.
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Search and rescue workers came to the aid of about 120 people stranded in the flooding, while residents formed a human chain to free a woman trapped inside her auto when raging waters enveloped the vehicle on a downtown street.
The calls highlight the fear people felt as 6.5 inches of rain fell in about two hours.
During his visit to our editorial board this summer, Emergency Management Director Kevin Aftung said the county is talking to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, the Prince George’s and Montgomery County sewer and water agency, to determine if the dam releases from its reservoirs plays a role in flooding along the Patuxent.
In another call, a person calls from a restaurant along Main Street reporting that people are stuck on an upper floor.
Search and rescue workers, who saved about 120 people stranded by the surging waters, planned to conduct additional searches of properties in the area on Monday, Kittleman said. “It’s coming in the building”.
“Get out, get out”, someone screamed to her.
“What’s happening?”, the 911 dispatcher asked. The group was eventually able to get to an upper level of the building.
“We talked to a lot of people who said they had very little time to get ready – like ten minutes and all of the sudden it was there”, he added. When the water went down, they walked out to find incredible damage.
“We are going to make sure Ellicott City rises up to be an even stronger more vibrant place than it is right now”, he said.
A 35-year-old mother, Jessica Watsula, and 38-year-old father of three, Joseph Anthony Blevins, were both killed when their vehicles were struck by shoulder-deep floodwaters, carrying them off.
Her brother told police that she and family members were visiting Ellicott City when the flooding happened.
He ran into the raging waters, but lost his footing and started to be swept away himself.
“It’s just Ellicott City being Ellicott City”, he said. “We have seen people in cars and people holding on to cars being swept away”, the caller said.
“This was a terrible, terrible, horrific incident before we knew two people had died”.
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Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman said that residents displaced by the flooding will be allowed to access their homes between 12:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
