A storm hit the town Sunday.
A member of the Army National Guard is missing after a Maryland town was devastated by flooding Sunday.
Eddison Hermond, 39, of Severn, was reportedly trying to help others escape the floodwaters in Ellicott City when he was swept away.
He was last seen around 5:20 p.m. Sunday, during the worst of the flooding, and was reported missing early Monday, police said.
"He has not been located despite ongoing searches of the area," they added.
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman said his priorities are finding Hermond and assessing the damage the waters have inflicted on the area.
“We’re certainly making every effort to locate that individual,” Kittleman said at a press conference.
A massive rainstorm hit the area Sunday, submerging cars, damaging buildings, and putting most of the of the city’s epicenter underwater. Nearly eight inches of rain fell in eight hours and floodwaters passed 24 feet, reports said.
It was a repeat of another major flood in 2016, when two people were killed and the city suffered millions of dollars in damage. The city’s hub, Main Street, had to be rebuilt. Reconstruction efforts are now back to square one, officials said.
A downtown clock that survived the last flood and became a symbol of the town’s resilience was also destroyed on Sunday, Huffington Post reported.
Gov. Larry Hogan has declared a state of emergency in Howard County in the aftermath of the storm.
Thirty rescues were carried out Monday morning and more are still underway, CNN reported.
“It’s just devastating because people have their lives tied up in this and went through a heck of a lot and came back and now they’re starting all over again,” Hogan said. “They say this is a once-every-1,000-years flood, and we’ve had two of them in two years."
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