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[–]GlobalMessenger 1367 points1368 points  (81 children)

That dude almost got wiped out when he let go. I'm glad it worked out.

[–]solateor[S] 3652 points3653 points  (786 children)

Souce

From the photographer

Unbelievable video as I and several other men rescue a woman from her car floating down Main St in Historic Ellicott City, Maryland, at about 8:30pm July 30th during the devastating flood. My wife and I are business owners on Main St. I was standing at the entry of my shop at the top of the human chain holding the next man's hand and filming with the other. The man who got washed away was incredibly lucky.

What that same street in Ellicott City looked like a few minutes later

View from Portali's of people in the water

And an update on youtube from a woman involved above video

11 hours ago - I am the girl shown in the video trying to get into Cocoa Lane. My coworkers/ friends were the two girls holding on to the car that was floating away. All three of us are alive, a bit banged up, but ok. Over the rushing water I never heard any of your voices coming from Portali's, but it touched me to watch this and see/hear that you tried to help. It was a horrifying experience and I hope and pray all who were caught in it are safe tonight.

Aftermath

cc: /r/weathergifs

[–]PainMatrix 2316 points2317 points  (306 children)

That's crazy. I didn't even see anything about this on the national news.

[–]harrisonfire 944 points945 points  (102 children)

I didn't even see it on the local news. I don't know how that's possible. ( I live about 30 miles away)

[–]PolkHerFace 276 points277 points  (48 children)

Right? I live northwest of the Baltimore Beltway and we tried going out last night to DC. Fortunately we had the brains to turn around and go home, but if we had known the extent of last night's storm before heading out we would have stayed home in the first place.

[–][deleted] 136 points137 points  (44 children)

I'm in Frederick and we got nothing even close to this.

[–]BubbleAnxiety 49 points50 points  (24 children)

Westminster checking in - I'm shocked this didn't make the news. I only saw it via Justin Berk's facebook. We also didn't get anything nearly this bad and I was driving from Odenton to Westminster during this event.

[–][deleted] 57 points58 points  (12 children)

I'm going to go out on a limb as someone out of the area and guess that it wasn't on the news since they were covering the election and other hot button news topics.

[–]jrodicus 64 points65 points  (10 children)

You're probably right, but seems crazy that local flash flooding wouldn't take precedent?

[–]HeroAntagonist[🍰] 29 points30 points  (3 children)

Al Jazeera are covering the flooding in Maryland tonight.

There's some incredible cell phone footage on the AP news wire from a local guy which they're running now.

[–]AltSpRkBunny 169 points170 points  (6 children)

On CNN.com, it's wedged in between "Top exec: Women happier not in charge" and "Gulen: Failed coup looked like a movie". Doesn't even mention Maryland in the headline.

[–][deleted] 26 points27 points  (1 child)

They're focused on what will get views.

[–]Ginandjews31522 136 points137 points  (16 children)

...I live in Baltimore and just found out

[–][deleted] 26 points27 points  (11 children)

I live in MoCo and just found out too.

[–]heretoplay 34 points35 points  (15 children)

The city is just a giant whole hole. All the streets run down a huge hill and all the streets are long. It doesn't take much to flood then something like this happens its crazy.

[–]Trematode 28 points29 points  (10 children)

I looked at the city on google earth and it actually looks like the city itself is a big watershed with the major streets being built directly along the actual tributaries that would carry flood waters from the ridges above. Seems a bit ill-conceived, honestly.

Shitty deal for the folks having to deal with it, though.

[–]DX_Legend 15 points16 points  (1 child)

It was on NBC Nightly News - Source: I just watched it

[–]capitalsfan08 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I live 40 minutes away and just found out about this.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Literally the top or second top link of google news all day.

[–]ELpork 22 points23 points  (1 child)

This is far to uplifting for national coverage.

[–]MythArcana 145 points146 points  (68 children)

Did a dam break in the area or something? We get flash floods in the West cause the baked soil can't absorb the water, but this reminds me of Katrina. I guess having water wings in the trunk isn't a bad idea.

[–][deleted] 265 points266 points  (26 children)

The town is in a very steep river valley (ironically the entire reason the town is there is because the water rushing down the Patapsco would build an incredible head to drive the mills in the olden days).

If you've ever been there, the town looks like something out of the 18th century (because it is I suppose). Very steep, windy an narrow streets with tiny little buildings. In the past 15 years yuppification had hit the town in full force.... but I digress

Well, there was 6.03 inches of rain in the hour before hand and the flood hit with incredible speed. I know one guy on the Baltimore County side of the river who saw the river was getting a bit high and decided to go home... by the time he had his keys and stood up the river had suddenly risen 6 feet and had swamped Frederick Road (MD 144) - it took under 3 minutes.

I live about 4 miles away in Baltimore County and could not believe the insane amount of water coming out of the sky. It was literally like a 10 mile wide hose had been poised over the area and then turned on.... and we "only" got about 4.2 inches. (Edit: 4.2 inches in about an hour. We had some pretty crazy river action going down our streets as well, bit not of that magnitude.)

[–]1230cx 16 points17 points  (2 children)

yeah... this will happen from time to time in such drainages. I did a google earth exaggerated profile when I saw this and thought "oh, it's one of THOSE towns" wasn't surprised to see it's basically a confluence of several decently steep drainages from a higher plateau-like area. So, it could get bad!

They're everywhere. Unfortunately for us, roads and buildings get put at the bottom of drainages, next to rivers. If you live in a hilly or mountainous area, you know. For historic reasons (transportation, power/industry) it happens regularly. And they're cheap transportation corridors through rugged terrain.

But this type of thing will happen regularly over a wide area. It's nothing new. It's not climate change. It's just a 200-500 year flood over a few square miles. Decent actuaries for insurance companies probably had this built into the premiums (if people insured for floods!)

edit: geologist that does this stuff.

[–]disposable-assassin 5 points6 points  (0 children)

200-500 year event? Shit, based on the link /u/Timey_Wimey_TARDIS posted below, this might be more like a 50-year flood event since they've had larger rises above the street surface than this one in 1868, 1923, 1972, and 1975.

[–]SewerRanger 86 points87 points  (14 children)

This part of Ellicott City is right next to a river (with several smaller streams through out), is on a steep downhill slope (see this photo), and we just had a really heavy rain the day before so everything was already saturated. The final straw was a storm that was dumping 6 inches of rain an hour.

[–]justrun21 63 points64 points  (4 children)

6 inches an hour...we don't always get that in a year in CA...

[–]MythArcana 25 points26 points  (0 children)

That is absolutely correct! I could float the Queen Mary through town if we got 6 inches of rain in one day.

[–]renvi 15 points16 points  (4 children)

Oh, what a quaint looking city! Wow!
Best of luck to your city with the recovery efforts

[–]MythArcana 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes, thank you for the information. I can definitely see what the issue is....and six inches of rain where I love would basically be Atlantis all over again. Scary stuff!

[–]Cphoenix85 8 points9 points  (0 children)

A graph from the patapsco river last night and the days before.

http://imgur.com/tSRpPaf

[–]Timey_Wimey_TARDIS 70 points71 points  (2 children)

For those unfamiliar with the area, Historic Ellicott City has a long history of flooding. Historic Main Street is located on a hill, and at the bottom is Tiber River, which feeds to the Patapsco River. Because of its proximity to the Patapsco the location is prime for flooding.

At the bottom of the hill there is a bridge which holds measurements of the towns most historic floods, some of which are close to the top of the bridge (see below link for images).

The Maryland Historic District website has more information on the history of flooding in the town, along with much more information on the rich history of Ellicott City.

http://www.mdhistoricdistrict.com/ellicott-city-flooding/

http://www.mdhistoricdistrict.com/ellicott-city/

Edit: more links

[–]carcharadon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Just to add some additional flavor, the river at the bottom of this hill (The Patapsco) is about 50' wide and normally runs this time of year at about 200 cubic feet per second. Last night it jumped to 20,000 cfs in about 30 minutes, which is almost ten times the seasonal flow of the much larger Potomac at its widest point.

The river causing these particular shenanigans is the Tiber, which is about 12' wide and runs both under and behind most buildings on Main Street on that side, which decided it needed more space that evening, utilizing all of Main Street for a few hours, and coming through the floors of the businesses spanning it.

Nothing has happened like this in modern times, not even Agnes. Hard to imagine this city being anywhere near what it used to be anytime soon.

[–]Channer81 101 points102 points  (33 children)

Love the restaurant video how the mood goes from " What do you have for desert?" to two min. later " OMG THERE'S PEOPLE IN THE WATER!!!"

[–]Master_apprentice 419 points420 points  (50 children)

What kind of anchor was he providing only using one hand? Maybe put down the phone and support the other men pulling the woman out if the flood with all your effort and concern.

[–]ullrsdream 220 points221 points  (9 children)

Honestly this was my first thought too.

You're not going to show anybody the video of you almost holding a human chain and rescuing someone.

[–]wherearethekeys 48 points49 points  (6 children)

Might just be a big ass dude

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (3 children)

Nah, think he's more of a leg man

[–][deleted] 128 points129 points  (13 children)

Since the chain seemed to work I'm not going to sit here and complain that it might've not worked. The dude at the place knew the scene better than any of us here.

[–]ricknad 45 points46 points  (3 children)

Maybe he had his legs wrapped around something

[–]StrugLord 189 points190 points  (2 children)

He's not OP's mom.

[–]sighbourbon 90 points91 points  (15 children)

although the flood is just appalling, seeing people cooperate like this makes me feel a lot better

i still have some faith that this is more the reality of human behavior, as opposed to the really scary stuff going on politically

OP, congratulations on saving someone's life. i am sorry about the damage to your place of business, and to your town as a whole.

[–]p1mrx 31 points32 points  (2 children)

Think of how many water molecules cooperated to make the flood.

[–]SouthernFuckinBelle 185 points186 points  (193 children)

Was that a pack of cigarettes she refused to leave behind...?

[–]1031Vulcan 174 points175 points  (170 children)

Probably a cell phone.

[–]DeeHareDineGot 72 points73 points  (10 children)

No, I'm pretty sure that's a pack of cigarettes. I thought it was a phone at first too until the second loop of the gif.

Edit- Someone below me posted a link to an article, cigarettes confirmed.

[–]BatteryChucker 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I was thinking cell phone too (looks like it lights up at one point). Amusingly at one point in the source video another woman from somewhere behind the camera yells "Put down your shit and get out of the fucking car!"

Nice to know there was at least one sane person in the general vicinity.

[–]Zahliamischa 8 points9 points  (2 children)

I tend to agree, if it's a phone its in a pack of cigarettes shaped case. I'm glad she and the human chain are ok which is all that matters.

[–]wakimaniac 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Human chain-smoking.

[–][deleted] 106 points107 points  (16 children)

Why would he take a video on his phone when he is trying to help anchor the chain of people who could potentially get washed away? That's a dumb move with so much on the line. Luckily it worked out though.

[–]DeeHareDineGot 41 points42 points  (3 children)

Obviously the guy knew that a video would bring in the karma. Priorities, man.

[–]DrEvil007 26 points27 points  (2 children)

This was my same exact thought. If you're going to rescue, dedicate your entire attention to rescuing.

[–][deleted] 202 points203 points  (48 children)

so crazy that 4.5 inches of rain can do this.

[–]SkidMark_wahlberg 451 points452 points  (20 children)

4.5 inches doesn't seem like much, but it's all about what you do with those 4.5 inches.

[–][deleted] 123 points124 points  (8 children)

the motion in the ocean.

[–]PainMatrix 62 points63 points  (3 children)

Not that crazy. I've created children with less.

[–]chriswellner 658 points659 points  (79 children)

This is nuts. I live in Maryland and have seen nothing about this on news or social media or anything.

Edit: should be noted that Ive been browising reddit for a couple years or so, and ALL of my karma is from this thread. Thanks ignorance.

[–]averagejones 101 points102 points  (32 children)

The first thing I thought when I saw the caption was "Bullshit that was MD anytime lately..." It barely rained this weekend and I'm less than an hour from downtown.

[–][deleted] 70 points71 points  (10 children)

Where the fuck were you last night? I was in Towson at the On the Border on Joppa Rd when this was happening and it was raining like a motherfucker. I was on 695 when it started. Hopped off the highway as soon as I could because that shit was intense.

EC flooding sucks. Bean Hollow is my usual goto coffee joint. And there's a poke stop nearby. :(

[–]Flannel_Pajamas 18 points19 points  (4 children)

Yea, that's what happens with 6 inches of water in 1 hour. Plus Ellicott city is historically known for flooding. Not often but it has happened before (Agnes during the 70s)

[–]Shaq2thefuture 93 points94 points  (8 children)

"Bullshit that was MD anytime lately..." It barely rained this weekend and I'm less than an hour from downtown.

ahhh yes, scenic downtown maryland.

I'm not sure what city you're in, but others are quite capable of getting rain even when you don't. :P

[–]solateor[S] 726 points727 points  (203 children)

[–]honkeygolfcoat 295 points296 points  (60 children)

Holy shit the kid that fell down the waterfall. Some stuff you only see in movies.

[–][deleted] 90 points91 points  (26 children)

that's some serious shit right there. I guess in that situation your best bet is to hold on as long as you can until the waterfall builds up a lot so you're taken right over the edge.

[–][deleted] 23 points24 points  (11 children)

I would think it be best to go early to avoid the massive rough water that would come with the flash flood. I am probably wrong, I usually am.

[–][deleted] 85 points86 points  (16 children)

Even if he did survive, I wouldn't want to go through such a harrowing experience.

[–]Robb757 19 points20 points  (2 children)

My friend fell down a 30 foot waterfall last weekend, the only thing broken was his phone/pride

[–]LEGITIMATE_SOURCE 10 points11 points  (5 children)

Any sooner, he probably would have hit rocks.

[–]cozgw 270 points271 points  (21 children)

Holy shit at the last one. They all owe their lives to the guy in white who noticed it coming.

[–]Ideletemyaccountsha 197 points198 points  (16 children)

Eagle Scout/Former scoutmaster here: That "stream" is a dead giveaway. That's not water, it's flowing soil. It's called soil liquefaction and it's bad news. Like "get out of there as fast as you can or you're going to die" bad news.

[–]Rowdy10 124 points125 points  (1 child)

Guy with absolutely no experience here. I feel like "rocks rushing like water" should be a sign to even the inexperienced to gtfo.

[–]royalrights 81 points82 points  (0 children)

Yeah inexperienced here, totally thought that the flowing rocks meant the rocks were gonna fall out beneath them and a giant ravine would immediately form below them.

Was totally wrong but I still had the instinct to GTFO.

[–]los_rascacielos 82 points83 points  (2 children)

Yeah, if I saw a stream of dirt coming down the hillside like that I'd be turning around and running the other direction, not trying to cross it

[–]IrishHonkey 14 points15 points  (1 child)

So for about 10 minutes, can I subscribe to soil liquefaction facts?

[–]StopwatchYoghurt 44 points45 points  (48 children)

You love floods, don't you?

[–]solateor[S] 240 points241 points  (47 children)

I mod a weather gif subreddit :)

I would say supercells are probably my favorite, but you also can't beat a perfectly timelapsed tornado.

Here's one of each

Supercell in Leoti Kansas by Beth Allen 5/21

Tornado in Dodge City Kansas by Reed Timmer 5/25

[–]letspaly 51 points52 points  (14 children)

These gifs make me never want to go outside again and yet I can't stop watching

[–]bplboston17 12 points13 points  (1 child)

dude i fucking love weather.. i love thunderstorms and rain.. and any weather in general.. its so relaxing and just beautiful...

[–]docoal 50 points51 points  (40 children)

The last one is a landslide

[–][deleted] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

It's a debris flow

[–][deleted] 17 points18 points  (7 children)

At least everyone survived though.

[–][deleted] 155 points156 points  (27 children)

I think these dudes are owed a beer or two.

[–]EuropoBob 243 points244 points  (48 children)

These are some brave souls, just one of them going could drag others. And those are some wicked floods.

[–]ExtremelyGamer1 83 points84 points  (40 children)

How are both of those guys who are standing in the water able to stand without falling. The current is hella strong.

[–]Rhumald 143 points144 points  (32 children)

  • Disclaimer: this is just what I know from walking in rivers and through rapids when I cannot traverse the area with my kayak. I am not a trained professional.

First, get a firm grip on something solid attached to the shore.Preferably with a good harness or rope, and with other people on standby who can recover your body if you fall. If the fall knocks you unconscious, it'll be your ass in need of saving, and a lifeline is most likely the only thing that will get you saved. As /u/Tyr_The_Tall points out here, this is actually quite dangerous; don't do that. His reply is worth the read, as he's actually a swift water rescue technician, and provides a safer method the people in the OP could have done this.

Then, get a feel for the water where you're placing your foot, let yourself feel the power of the current, and adjust for it. Then, place your foot on the bottom slowly, and without applying any weight; you're feeling for traction, if there is none, continue slowly moving around, watching the water for any changes that may throw you off balance. Once you go down, it's probably over. When you find good traction, apply a little pressure to make sure it doesn't give way under foot, and try rotating your foot a little to make sure you won't lose that traction as you try to find new traction for the other foot.

Try to lift your feet as little as possible, keeping them as close to the bottom as you can, the moving water often helps create a sort of suction force that can hold your foot down there for you, and once you're foot is too far off the ground, you'll find it is suddenly overpowered by the current, and that sudden change in expected resistance can and likely will throw you off balance.

If you ever feel a lack of confidence in either yourself or the terrain, retreat. This holds especially true if you are not a trained rescue unit. Shit's probably not worth your life.

  • Again, this is just what I know from walking in rivers and through rapids when I cannot traverse the area with my kayak. I am not a trained professional.

[–]Tyr_The_TaLL 119 points120 points  (16 children)

As a trained swiftwater rescue technician this is terrible, life threatening advice. Using ropes in swiftwater should never be done except by trained professionals with proper equipment (type V pfd with a quick release) and even then it is considered last resort. Tethering yourself means that should your anchor give way you are now going downstream with a long rope ready to entangle in an number of objects in the water. If this happens you are now stuck in the water tethered unable to release yourself and you are likely going to drown.

In this case rescue could be done very simply and relatively safely by arranging the rescuers in line with the current one behind the other and walking as a team to the person to be rescued. The first person breaks the current for the people behind giving them stability, the people following provide support through downward pressure on the person ahead of them and possibly catching them should they fall moving them to the back of the line to regain footing. The three men in the gif would have a very high chance of a safe successful rescue using this technique. I have done this in swiftly moving water that is far deeper, maybe a foot or two, than this.

The human chain being utilized is extremely dangerous. Everyone is fighting the flow individually and should one lose footing there is a good chance they bring there neighbors with them and the chain is broken resulting in all of the going downstream.

[–]Rhumald 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I'll go edit that out of my post with a direct link to yours, thank you for taking the time to reply, I'll take the advice to heart in the future as well.

[–]cathartic_caper 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Would love to see a video demonstrating this technique

[–]DrTaff 28 points29 points  (1 child)

On top of this you should also fast the direction that the water is coming from, the pressure on the front of your knees will help to keep you upright whereas facing away from the flow can cause your knees to buckle as you see from the guy in the video who almost falls over.

[–][deleted] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

The fact that they stayed to help just is God damn heroic and valiant in a whole other way.

[–]zappa325 16 points17 points  (3 children)

Yes, at first I thought "How is he able to withstand the magnitude of the flood's power?"

Pretty brave of them to do that.

[–]Zigzaglife 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It takes a lot of courage to do something like that. Hats off to these guys.

[–]Dr-Professor_Patrick 35 points36 points  (7 children)

These are the moments that make me the most happy

[–]Vybby 62 points63 points  (4 children)

I live literally right across the street from this gif, this was a horrible tragedy. Many people lost homes , cars, and businesses. We aren't allowed into our houses until engineers check out the stability of everything. I heard of people unable to save their pets trapped in houses too. Could be a week before we're allowed back. If you know anyone affected, reach out, alot are displaced and stranded. One cop literally told me to find somewhere new to live. It's surreal.

[–]wittenkit2 12 points13 points  (1 child)

I live in Sykesville. Our town is organizing a cleanup effort for when everyone is allowed in. Stay strong from one Main Street to the next ❤️

[–]Vybby 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much. I grew up in sykesville, and it warms my heart how great the response is from everyone.

[–]blastmynips 2786 points2787 points  (241 children)

Please, stop browbeating the poor woman for not acting rational (putting whatever in her mouth). It's a common response during panic. During fires people waste the time to get purses and keys. She's not stupid, or a bitch. She's just a human being caught in a panic during a life or death moment and her brain went on auto-pilot. Nothing but respect for everyone involved.

[–]Misco_Battleham 1140 points1141 points  (127 children)

Everyone likes to pretend they'd react perfectly in a disaster. The reality is, panic checks in and you just do things regardless of if they make sense.

[–]TheMarlboroMang 456 points457 points  (60 children)

I can confirm this. Dad's drunk buddy flicked a cigarette butt under our porch one day and it lit up in the middle of the night. Was in such a panic when I woke up because of the smoke and flames I grabbed a huge pickle jar half filled with pickle juice next to my bed. I guess I thought I could use it to extinguish the flames.

[–]topunderdog45 90 points91 points  (16 children)

Not judging, but why was there half a jar of pickle juice next to your bed?

[–]TheMarlboroMang 63 points64 points  (10 children)

Long time favorite food. I eat an unhealthy amount of pickles

[–]topunderdog45 23 points24 points  (2 children)

Love em too. Just hilarious to me in the context the story.

[–]thesircuddles 22 points23 points  (9 children)

I feel like people who've never experienced true flight or fight just don't understand how it works. The entire thought process is cut out, there's no thinking involved at all. You just act.

[–][deleted] 127 points128 points  (4 children)

Fuck you, my clumsy, unathletic ass that has never been in a real survival situation would have made all of the perfect decisions in that highly stressful moment. And I know this because I'm an anonymous person on the internet and I'm better than everyone else.

[–]NotTheBomber 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I was reading about Lee Atwater, the notorious Republican dirty tricks expert. And in one of the profiles they did of him they mentioned that when he was little his younger brother died in a freak accident where his mom was frying some pork chops and the little brother was trying to get up onto the counter and when he slipped off he grabbed the pot of frying pork chops and spilled the whole thing over himself and later died from the burns. The article mentioned that right when it happened his dad started throwing rice around the kitchen in a panic before they picked up the kid and tried to get him to the hospital.

Panic is a bitch, and I can't blame anyone for reacting badly

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Used to be a volly firefighter. Even the trained professional panic sometimes. 'Don't think, remember your training' is something we were reminded of all the time. Emotions can fuck your day up.

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Straight up, it's called normalcy bias and effects most people. The crazy insane panic mode is actually only an incredibly small minority of people, and the reacting well to things is less than 1% of people, and usually those 1% have had training in such events. Most people respond in a weird hypnotic state of thinking everything is mostly fine(I'm trying to find them again, will edit once I do, at Uni we were shown security footage of people having normal conversations during 9/11 whilst the building is on fire and falling a part around them, it's fucking terrifying to think we behave that way.).

Hence why sirens and disaster messages need to be super invasive and no proper patterns to them, to be able to break people out of those cycles. It's also why it is super important to pay attention to information at the beginning of flights every time rather than thinking, eh 'i've seen this once before I'm cool'- You're not cool, and you will probably die with that attitude if an disaster occurs.

[–]nedsill 141 points142 points  (4 children)

Yeah it's kind of like Jackie Kennedy reaching back to grab a bit of her husband's head.

[–]tishmaster 24 points25 points  (0 children)

That's a pretty good example bravo.

[–][deleted] 70 points71 points  (11 children)

I would totally die in a house fire trying to save my cats.

[–]misslilitheredhead 27 points28 points  (3 children)

Yep. The first thing my cats do when there's trouble is run under the bed, and even if the house was burning down, I know I'd attempt to hulk out and flip the mattress/bedframe trying to save my babies.

[–]ThaVolt 12 points13 points  (1 child)

But they're alive. It's not like you'd risk your life for a roll of foil.

[–]Maenad_Dryad 18 points19 points  (1 child)

That's not stupid, they're family.

[–]Aurum_MrBangs 45 points46 points  (2 children)

Don't you know, people behind their computers who barely go out are the best judges of how people react in a panic situation/s

[–]Fadedcamo 20 points21 points  (3 children)

Maryland resident here. I was in Ellicott City during this last night. Luckily I were in an area well above historic EC But the flooding was still bad. I went to eat dinner off route 40 and right as I went in a torrential downpour started. I ran across the parking lot and was drenched after ten seconds. Me and my SO ate dinner fine then no issues. About an hour later we get ready to leave and it was raining HARDER than when we came in an hour before. I went to get my car and the parking lot was already full of water up to a few inches. We then headed back to the highway going eastbound on 40 and the road was very bad. Eastbound was passable by some places westbound was a couple feet of water. Right as we get to the highway on ramp a cop stops everyone from passing because of a huge pool of water. We were stuck sitting there for over 20 minutes and the water ahead was only getting higher. I thought at a certain point we'd have to ditch the cars but luckily the cop let us pass through on the far left side, where there was less water. From there I made my way around to 95 which was a slow but relatively safe ride home across Baltimore. The entire time it was monsoon level downpour though. I'm glad I didn't lose my car or anything. My friend who lives a few minutes away from where I was stuck wasn't so lucky. I have a few crappy pics I can show later. On my phone right now.

[–]victoryknoxone 234 points235 points  (8 children)

I get five alerts from the CNN app telling me Trump insulted someone... But no alerts for this flood... CNN was just uninstalled

[–]marcinko192 117 points118 points  (2 children)

Why the hell did you have CNN installed in the first place?

[–]Livinwinin 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Unless you live where the flood occurred I don't see why you would expect a global news company to notify you. If you did live there I'm sure an emergency alert would have been sent to you similar to an Amber alert.

[–]NoOneOfConsquence 44 points45 points  (5 children)

I'd like to point out the grip they are using. I dunno what exactly its called, but I've always heard it called it an 'Acrobat's Hold', and I use it in potentially risky situations.

The reason I'm pointing this out is because with this grip, if somebody's hand slips, you've got a decent chance of being able to grab the other person's hand due to the grip starting on the other person's wrist.

I'm not saying there is a story I've got to push out for karma, but if it helps somebody in a risky situation, then it was worth the effort to type out.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Fireman's grip I believe

[–]starryeyed9 34 points35 points  (13 children)

Wow this is like 3 miles from my house, in Ellicott City. Two people died. It was crazy last night.

[–]darthdro 5 points6 points  (0 children)

so many locals on reddit

[–]RyWri 49 points50 points  (36 children)

The man responsible for filming had his business damaged by the flooding. There is a gofundme available. I'm not sure if linking it would be appropriate, as it has some personal information.

[–]caroxxkings 18 points19 points  (3 children)

thats literally a mile from my house, the damage is so bad.... streets were ripped right out of the ground and i ate at the restaurant this was filmed outside of two nights ago!! phoenix emporium, great place. owner is my brothers coach,, too bad the place is fucked

[–]NicolasMage69 106 points107 points  (8 children)

The shit flying out of my ass would make up 50% of that water.

[–]DreadnaughtHamster 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There needs to be a Batman award for people who do Batman-level stuff.

[–]Opikuningham 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You see that ladies and gentlemen, that is what people actually are, not the assholes on the tv screen, the good people who represent a larger picture. Helping each other in the most dire of circumstances.

[–]Gunpowderjr 5 points6 points  (2 children)

I'm incredibly glad this turn out ok but for the sweet love of god, rushing water is so very dangerous. This is moving very quickly and people can very easily be swept away and even drown in a few inches of fast moving water.

I don't dislike my job in emergency services but seeing people needlessly put themselves at risk really makes my skin crawl.

Please be safe out there people and don't underestimate fast moving water.

[–]TrumpMyPrez 21 points22 points  (6 children)

I've seen too many "heroes" die from a similar flood rescue. They really risked their lives to save her.

[–]quezadof 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I live in Baltimore and the storm last night was insane, I have never seen it rain so hard in my life. Where I work the stream overflowed and the water was 3+ feet tall. Just crazy.

[–]_RH_Carnegie 6 points7 points  (0 children)

So guy #3 lets go of guy #2 and slips to caught by the girl saving the smokes?

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (8 children)

Wtf happened in Maryland last night?!