WASHINGTON (AP) – The picturesque Main Street of Ellicott City, Maryland, faces a monthslong recovery that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars after devastating flooding left two dead and damaged almost every home and business along the road, officials said.
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Carolyn Sanchez, who lives on upper Main Street, describes the waist high water that sent cars crashing into each other, like the scene behind her on the street after Saturday nights flooding in Ellicott City, Md., Sunday, July 31, 2016.
Main St. resident Jonathan Butkus, 37, carried a teenage boy from a auto on his shoulders elsewhere on the flooded street after racing into waist-deep waters.
The flood also tore away portions of the street and many storefronts, leaving the quaint shopping district in a shambles.
“We’ve never seen such devastation in Howard County for over 50 years”, Allan Kittleman, the county executive, told CNN.
The bodies of two people, a man and a woman, were found in the aftermath, one in the river, officials said. “This is a devastating situation and the residents of Ellicott City need to know that Annapolis is prepared to support their needs throughout this hard process”.
“I don’t think anything could have stopped this tragedy”, he said, “but, as you know, we have flooding”.
Some 25 buildings and 170 cars were destroyed or damaged, local media reported.
The two people killed, 35-year-old Jessica Watsula of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and 38-year-old Joseph Blevins of Windsor Mill, Maryland, were both in vehicles that were overcome by floodwaters, according to officials.
“There are cars flying down the street”, a woman who called from the Bean Hollow coffee shop can be heard telling the operator.
Her brother told police that she and family members were visiting Ellicott City when the flooding happened.
“It looks like the set of a disaster movie”, Kittleman told The Associated Press. “It’s rapidly rising”, he said. Soon after, the video shows a group of men link arms and stretch out towards the vehicle, eventually pulling the woman from her auto to safety.
Historic rainfall rates and major flash flooding Saturday evening in the Ellicott City, MD area.
Her pastor of eight years, the Rev. Dean Cover, said Watsula had a bubbly personality and a smile that could be seen from a mile away.
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No firm financial damage estimate is available, but Ryan Miller, director for emergency management in the county, said it would run into the millions of dollars.
