Ellicott City, Maryland, was hit over the weekend with major flooding from the Patapsco River, a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. The city has a history of the river over-running its banks—it was hit with a “flood of the century” in 1972 after Hurricane Agnes moved through the Mid-Atlantic region, and as far back as 1868 there are reports of floods whisking through the low-lying downtown region.
Receiving more than two inches of rain in just two hours on Saturday night (for perspective, that’s about as much rain as they would normally expect in a month) sent water careening through the downtown area, destroying or damaging more than 25 buildings, taking two lives, and injuring many others.
This video captures the human toll of the floods, as men form a human chain to rescue a woman trapped in her car by the water, which is surging over its hood. At one point, the man closest to the car is nearly pulled downstream by the fast-moving water. The woman, luckily, was successfully rescued.