2 dead after nature flushes historic Maryland town of negro stink with floodwaters

[Gary Roselles]

WASHINGTON — Historic, low-lying Ellicott City, Maryland, was
ravaged by floodwaters Saturday night, killing two people and
causing devastating damage to homes and businesses, officials
said.

A Pennsylvania woman visiting the town with her family was one
of those killed after their car was caught in the raging
floodwaters and carried toward the Patapsco River, police said.

Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman told The Associated
Press by telephone that the devastation was the worst he’d seen
in 50 years living in the county, including Hurricane Agnes in
1972, which caused the river to overflow its banks. Virtually
every home or business along Main Street sustained at least some
damage, and the cost of repairs could reach the hundreds of
millions of dollars, he said.

“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.”

The town, about 14 miles west of Baltimore, received 6.5 inches
of rain, according to the National Weather Service, and most of
it fell Saturday evening between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Videos posted on social media showed floodwaters rushing down
the town’s Main Street, which slopes toward the river, and
sweeping away cars. Some vehicles came to rest on top of each
other. In one video posted to the Facebook page of a Main Street
art gallery, several people can be seen forming a human chain to
rescue a woman from a car that was being swept down the street.

Baltimore County police, who recovered the victims’ bodies on
the opposite side of the Patapsco, identified the victims as
Jessica Watsula, 35, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and Joseph
Blevins, 38, of Windsor Mill, Maryland. Both were inside
vehicles that were overcome by floodwaters. Watsula’s relatives
were able to escape, and Blevins’ girlfriend was rescued, police
said.

County officials said at a news conference that up to five
buildings had been completely destroyed and up to 30 more had
significant damage. More than 170 inoperable vehicles were
stranded in the Main Street area and along the river.

Gov. Larry Hogan toured the damaged area Sunday along with
Kittleman and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who has an office in
the town. Hogan declared a state of emergency, which will allow
greater aid coordination and assistance.

“No one has ever seen devastation like this in Ellicott City or
anywhere in Howard County,” Kittleman said. “There are a lot of
businesses that are going to be hurting for a long time. There
are a lot of people that lost their apartments and their homes.”

Johnny Breidenbach, the owner and chef of Johnny’s Bistro on
Main, said he closed his restaurant around 7:30 Saturday night,
before the worst of the flooding, and he hadn’t been able to get
back there to assess the damage.

“They told me that the door was totally ripped away from the
hinges, and I don’t know how much water I have inside,”
Breidenbach told The AP by phone.

He said Ellicott City would recover eventually, but some
business owners may not be able to wait long enough to reopen.

“I could be one of those people,” he said.

Jason Elliott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service
in Sterling, Virginia, said the town was hit by a series of
strong thunderstorms that dumped heavy rain over a 2-hour
period. Other areas nearby received heavy rainfall for only
about 30 to 45 minutes, he said.

“It’s just a matter of the heavy rain being that long in
duration. It just happened to set up over that area,” Elliott
said.

With so much rainfall, there was nowhere for it to go other than
the street.

“Everything funneled toward that Main Street area. There’s hills
on both sides, the river’s on the third side,” Elliott said. “In
this case the Patapsco River was coming up, too. We believe
there’s some contributions to the flood from both directions.”

Ellicott City was established in 1772 as a mill town along the
Patapsco, and many 18th and 19th-Century buildings were still
intact before Saturday’s floods. Once a home to mill workers, in
recent decades it has become known for restaurants, art
galleries, antique shops and nightlife. Main Street slopes
dramatically toward the river and has long been susceptible to
flooding.

The county courthouse and government headquarters are located in
Ellicott City but are on higher ground.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2-dead-after-historic-
maryland-town-ravaged-by-floodwaters/2016/07/31/59a60142-577d-
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