Saturday night thunderstorms triggered a vicious flash flood in Ellicott City, Maryland, prompting water rescues and ravaging streets, homes and businesses.
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A dramatic video captured showed several heroes forming a human chain to rescue a woman stuck inside her auto as the raging waters rushed the vehicle down Main Street at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Approximately 150 people who were downtown Saturday night had to be rescued, including from restaurants and from vehicles, in a storm Howard County Press Secretary Andy Barth said he believed was worse than Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
In a Facebook video, one woman is seen trying to drive through the water as her vehicle is violently pulled by the water.
Damage from flooding is seen in Ellicott City, West of Baltimore.
“The water was just rushing down the street like a big river”, said the music teacher. The National Weather Service reported 2.28 inches in three hours. The force of the water sent cars into buildings, destroying several structures, and leaving some in very bad shape. He said some business owners may come back on Sunday to find they have lost everything. After a Saturday evening Mass at St. Mark’s in Catonsville, we drove into the town and enjoyed dinner together at Cacao Lane.
Colville, the CEO of the YMCA of Frederick County, could tell that the rain was going to cause severe damage as she saw emergency responders on the roads and cars pulled over, she said.
Workers gather by the sidewalk of Main Street that caved in after the flooding.
Official rainfall figures from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor indicated the intensity of the rainfall in that part of the region. The city was evacuating its citizens, moving them to a local community shelter and away from the Main Street flooding.
Since its founding in 1772, the unincorporated town of 68,000 has endured at least four major floods, according to the Maryland Historic District’s website – a pair in the 1970s, another in 1923 and one in 1868 that “wiped out most of early industry in the valley sparing only the flour mill”. Others weren’t as fortunate; one plunged nose first into a channel and another was completely totaled.
The government will tow about 170 cars in the area, which was declared to be in a state of emergency by Gov. Larry Hogan. Georgia Avenue at Brookeville Road in Montgomery was reported closed in both directions, with a foot of water flowing across the road.
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Cars were tossed around like toys in Ellicott City, Maryland. In recent decades it’s become known for restaurants, art galleries, antique shops and nightlife.
