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‘We thought we were gone,’ Maryland flood survivor recalls

The New York Times reports the flooding caused heavy damage to the historic downtown of Ellicott City, destroying businesses and tearing up roads and sidewalks.

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Canning said he will probably take merchandise from the Ellicott City location and put it in other Zebop shops he owns while the city rebuilds.

In September of a year ago, Frederick saw more than 5 inches of rain over a few hours during a storm that flooded the YMCA on North Market Street with up to 12 feet of water and caused more than $1 million in damage.

He comes back up and three men join him to stretch themselves across the powerful stormwater to rescue the stranded woman.

But if it weren’t for the actions of a few courageous people, another woman could have easily lost her life after the flood waters began to force her auto down the street. Emergency workers armed with axes had climbed onto the roof of one building and kicked in the window of a neighboring antique store.

“I can’t do this”, the woman yelled as she crawled halfway out.

People responding to the footage posted on Facebook, praised the rescuers.

“I thought, ‘Oh my god, that’s it for Jason, ‘” Mr Dempster told the newspaper.

Officials say about 6-inches of rain fell in a short period of time Saturday, leading to flash flooding and unsafe surges of water.

Andy Barth, a spokesman for Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman, said about 2 p.m. Sunday that several other people who had been reported missing earlier in the day had been accounted for, but search operations continued and the death toll could rise.

“It looks like the set of a disaster movie”, said Kittleman, a Republican. “Cars everywhere, cars on top of cars, parts of the road are gone, many parts of the sidewalk are gone, storefronts are completely gone”.

At least two people are dead and virtually every building and business along the town’s historic main street has been damaged.

Cars are piled on top of each other in the Meadow Mill parking lot following Saturday’s devastating thunderstorms.

Baltimore County police later recovered her body on the opposite side of the Patapsco, along with that of a Windsor Mill, Md., man whose vehicle was also overcome by floodwaters.

“It was shocking and devastating, but what was incredible, that was the bad side of it, seeing the awful devastation, the good side was watching some really heroic rescues and seeing first responders and just the neighbors that were helping each other out in the cars as they were floating by”, Hogan said.

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Redding says devastation like that seen in Ellicott City hasn’t been witnessed since Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972, which caused flood waters to move through Frederick’s downtown. “There are a lot of businesses that are going to be hurting for a long time”. The declarations allow aid to be released more quickly for Ellicott City, which has a population of about 65,000.

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