Flash floods turn Maryland town's Main Street into raging muddy river

ByDARREN REYNOLDS ABCNews logo
Monday, May 28, 2018

A small Maryland town's Main Street metamorphosed into a raging muddy river on Sunday.

Flash floods caused storefronts in Ellicott City, located just outside of Baltimore, to become engulfed by brown, soupy water from the nearby Patapsco River. Parked cars on the street slid and collided into each other.

A state of emergency was declared by the state's governor, Larry Hogan.

Earlier in the day Maryland's Howard County issued a flash flood emergency at around 4:45 p.m.

Charlie Risselado, a waiter at Tersiguel's restaurant, told ABC News in a phone interview that the rainstorm had flooded the basement.

"Right now we have about 6 inches," he said.

Risselado said water had been "gushing out of windows" of some of the storefronts and "blasting through the fronts of these buildings."

"I'm losing power and I would like to take care of my staff," he added.

Two years ago another rainstorm killed two residents and significantly impacted local businesses.

Some people in the town managed to record some of Mother Nature's mayhem.

Parked cars were reduced to air hockey pucks.

The newly-formed street river can be seen on full display in this video.

A view from the second floor of an antique shop shows the treacherous waters that used to be a street.

Even first responders were turning away at this street intersection.

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