A group of passersby have formed a human chain to rescue a woman whose car was swamped by floodwaters in Maryland.
The dramatic rescue in Ellicott City’s Main Street was captured on video, which was posted to Facebook by local business owner Sara Arditti.
The footage shows one man being washed out of shot by the rushing water as he tries to reach the car.
Four men then form a human chain and move into the brown, waist-deep water towards the car. At one point someone off camera screams to the woman “get out, get out.” She replies: “I can’t get out, I can’t do this,” while trying to climb out of the window.
“You have to,” a woman off-screen shouts.
Eventually the woman starts to climb out of the car and one man manages to pull her out of the window before they are both pulled to safety.
Arditti wrote on Facebook that the man who was swept away by the flood survived.
“Unbelievable video shot by my husband Dave during the flood as he and several other men rescue a woman from her car floating down Main St right in front of our business, Still Life Gallery at about 8:30pm July 30th,” she wrote.
“Dave was 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.”
The video has been viewed more than one million times.
Two people died in the flooding and another 120 have been rescued.
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 said 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. “Cars everywhere, cars on top of cars, parts of the road are gone, many parts of the sidewalk are gone, storefronts are completely gone.”
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.
County officials said a that up to five buildings had been completely destroyed and up to 30 more had significant damage. More than 170 vehicles were stranded in the Main Street area and along the river.
“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.”
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.
Associated Press contributed to this report
