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Flooding destroyed parts of Ellicott City, Md. overnight.(Photo: WUSA)
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. —<span style="color: Red;">*</span><span style="color: Red;">*</span>There was an overwhelming feeling of helplessness on Sunday as residents of this old mill town near Baltimore surveyed the damage from once-in-a-lifetime flooding that left at least two people dead and the city's historic downtown in shambles.
Gov. Larry Hogan, who canceled an Eastern Shore appearance to be with devastated business owners, was escorted through the wreckage that remained after sheets of rain tore through the city on Saturday night. Many locals told The Baltimore Sun that the flooding was the worst since Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972.
"It’s hard to give them any kind of consolation to make them feel better today," Hogan said. "But we are just going to promise them that we are going to provide all the resources that we can to help them."
Saturday night's rapidly moving water overturned cars and washed away lower portions of the art galleries, antique shops and restaurants that line<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the city’s historic Main Street. Nearly every business had damage of some sort, and a state of emergency was declared.
Howard and Baltimore county officials on Sunday afternoon confirmed that a 35-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man were killed, the Baltimore Sun reported. The woman had been in Ellicott City with her family when the storm<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hit; they tried to drive out of town, the Sun reported, but their car got stuck and they left it to get to safety, said Elise Armacost, a Baltimore County police spokeswoman.
Emergency swift water rescue teams managed to save all of the family members but the woman, Armacost said. Her body<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was found about 2:20 a.m. near a bridge over the Patapsco River.
The man who was killed also had been downtown in a car with his girlfriend when the waters rose and began to sweep their car away, Armacost said. The woman was able to get out of the vehicle, but the man wasn't.
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 is possible that some people may be found in cars or buildings. We don't know," he told the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sun.
Shannon Tolley, 45, a music teacher from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Manheim Pa., told The Washington Post that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>she was driving through town with a friend on Saturday afternoon when they decided to stop. As the rain began, they popped into the basement bar at Ellicott Mills Brewing Company. Soon, she said, a flash flood warning alerted on Tolley’s phone, and “all of a sudden it started leaking in the basement bar.”
The restaurant staff moved diners up to the first floor, then — as the flooding worsened — the second and the third.
“The water was just rushing down the street like a big river,” Tolley told the Washington Post.
By about 9 p.m., the water had receded enough for Tolley to venture outside. She waded through ankle-deep water to her car, which had been parked high enough on a hill to prevent it from being swept away.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Tolley said.
All roads in and out of Ellicott City's historic district were blocked off Sunday, with access<span style="color: Red;">*</span>restricted to first<span style="color: Red;">*</span>responders.
Ed Crowl, owner of Wagon Wheel Antique Shop, told the Baltimore Sun that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>he has been through Agnes and other flooding in the town, including in 2011, and was "sort of calm now, because it's happened before."
But he didn't have flood insurance on his merchandise, he said, which looked like it was a total loss .
"All the furniture, big tall pieces, just turned upside down," he told the Baltimore Sun. "Big marble-top pieces were turned over, so it was powerful."
"What we're going to do, who the hell knows," said J.W. "Pete" Huey, a retiree and local resident who volunteers at the B&O Railroad Museum at the base of Main Street. "Mother Nature bats last," he told the Baltimore Sun.
But in the midst of the damage, there were signs of hope.
Stories of strangers helping strangers have emerged, including one video taken in the height of the flooding that showed a Main Street shop owner<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and several other<span style="color: Red;">*</span>people forming a human chain to save a woman trapped in her car.
Many in Ellicott City are counting their blessings and are vowing to rebuild.
"This is my whole life, but i know that our friends and our family and our community are going to come together," said coffee shop owner Gretchen Shuey. "We are going to be fine."
Contributing: The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post
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