Heroic Good Samaritans form human chain to pull victims from raging floodwaters that killed at least two people in Ellicott City, Maryland.
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Large parts of Maryland are facing one of the worst thunderstorms in decades, prompting Gov. Larry Hogan to sign a declaration of a state of emergency in Ellicott City, Howard County – one of the areas hit hardest by the floods.
Devastating flooding has damaged almost every home and business along Main Street of Ellicott City, according to officials. Rushing waters took the lives of two people after tearing away streets and ripping apart buildings.
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman, 57, claimed that while Ellicott City was prone to flooding, none of the previous floods compared to the one that struck the city Sunday night. Everyone in the vehicle managed to get out. On Monday, the man who wiped out but wouldn’t give up got to meet the woman he carried to safety. “I mean there is nothing left in there it is just washed out so antique dealers have been here for years”. The Patapsco tributary runs through the heart of Ellicott City’s downtown, passing through and underneath the Main Street corridor. We could have all died.
Ed McDonough, a spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, said officials won’t have a comprehensive damage estimate until building inspectors say damaged structures are stable enough for closer examination. “I know a lot of people wanted to go down earlier, but we had to make sure that things are stable”, Kittleman said.
On Monday construction crews crowded Main Street, using cranes to clear debris.
When she got to Jonathan Butkus’ second-floor apartment, Weglein says water was coming in and the landlord soon said people had to get out.
The county has evaluated 200 of the buildings downtown and found that four or five are destroyed, while another 20 to 30 are heavily damaged, said Robert Frances, director of the of the county Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits. People rescued one another from cars being swept away.
Watsula originally from Lancaster, was a dancer, loved hiking, animals and camping with her daughter, Sarah, according to the Sun.
A man killed by flash flooding in Ellicott City, Maryland, over the weekend was the director of financial aid at the University of Baltimore.
The old mill city has rebuilt and adapted after damaging floods regularly since the 1800s – most recently, when the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee drenched the region in 2011. “Going forward, the choice, to some extent, has been made for us”.
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Cell phone video caught an incredibly heroic rescue of a woman during the Ellicott City flooding Saturday night.
