The Howard County Police Department released calls that its 911 center received Saturday night, when downtown Ellicott City was swept up in a deadly flash flood.
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Every business near the river on the town’s historic Main Street had suffered major damage, including building fronts torn off and doors stripped away, county officials said.
As rushing water overtook the city, people spotted a woman trapped in her vehicle in the street and worked together to save her.
A submerged auto is visible in the Patapsco River, seen from the Howard County side of Patapsco Valley State Park after the sidewalk caved in due to Saturday nights flooding in Ellicott City, Md., Sunday, July 31, 2016. A group of strangers acted fast and joined hands to form a human chain.
According to police, floodwater began to sweep away the vehicle she was in.
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman said this was the worst calamity he had seen in 50 years – eclipsing the damage done by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, which caused the river to overflow its banks. The bodies of Joseph Anthony Blevins, 38, and Jessica Watsula, 35, were reportedly recovered after they were both carried off by the rushing water in separate incidents. Barnes fought the strong current of the water and linked arms with three other men to help pull the woman to safety.
“There torrential flooding on Main Street in Ellicott City”.
One such rescue was caught on film by a business owner on Ellicott City’s Main Street.
Hogan declared a state of emergency.
“Workers inspected approximately 200 properties in Ellicott City”.
“There were four other people there were helping with everything”, he told NBC Washington.
Vehicles were overturned and homes were ripped from their foundations in the historic Baltimore/Washington, D.C. suburb of Ellicott City this weekend when a fast-moving storm system dumped more than 165 millimeters of rain in Maryland in the span of two hours.
Kittleman hosted a meeting Monday for residents impacted by severe flooding in Ellicott City. Many sidewalks and roads remain unstable and it’s unclear when people will be able to return.
A 1-in-1,000-year rain event is a statistical way of expressing the probability of such a massive rainfall occurring in any given year in a given location, according to the National Center for Environmental Information, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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“The first floor of numerous businesses are just full of debris; can’t even get in them because of the debris”, he said.
