It was supposed to be a routine late-Sunday lunch over Mexican food. But the rainstorm outside morphed into a relentless downpour, fueling what soon became a river that dislodged parked cars and flooded buildings along Main Street in Ellicott City.
When Eddison Hermond spotted Kate Bowman trapped by rising water across the street, he ran to help.
"He just stepped over the ledge and he was immediately washed away," said Bowman, 41. "It was so fast. He just got washed away real quick."
"He's that kind of guy," said his close friend, Kenneth Josepha, a State Department analyst from Northern Virginia, whose wedding 13 years ago on Monday included Hermond as a groomsman. "If we called him right now saying we needed help looking for someone, Eddie would be there in five minutes."
Authorities say Hermond, 39, of Severn, Md., was swept away during the flood and remained missing on Monday.
At a briefing Monday afternoon, Howard County officials said Hermond was swept away while helping a woman search for her missing cat. But in a tearful interview with The Washington Post on Monday evening, Bowman explained it differently.
She said the rising waters had trapped her inside her shop, Clipper's Canine Cafe. She hastily put her cat in a carrier and escaped out a first-floor window, only to be caught by fast-moving, waist-high water.
"We were on opposite sides [of the street]. He was trying to keep me calm," she said of Hermond. "He's an absolute hero for what he did. ... I just pray that they find him."
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman said Monday morning that his priorities were finding Hermond and assessing the condition of buildings that house shops, restaurants and families.
The flooding, which prompted a state of emergency declaration from Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, echoed a similar storm in the summer of 2016, which left two people dead.
"It really is hard for us to be down here for a second time, seeing the same thing over again," said Lt. Jeff Carl of the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services. "It's a deja vu feeling."
Once again, many storefronts and buildings up and down the historic downtown were severely damaged, including homes and businesses that had only recently recovered from the flooding two years ago.
The area remained blocked off Monday, even to residents and business owners, as Kittleman surveyed the debris.
"If you look at the devastation and the damage, I would certainly say it's worse than 2016," he said. "We've had areas that were not even damaged at all two years ago terribly damaged this time."
Howard County officials said they received 1,100 calls to 911 between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday. At least two dozen people were stranded and needed to be rescued. Baltimore Gas and Electric said 450 electric customers and 270 gas customers remained without service in downtown Ellicott City as of Monday afternoon.
Mojan Bagha, owner of Main Street Oriental Rugs, said it had taken him three months to fix the damage in 2016. He'd built a retaining wall two years ago, but water had poured into his 120-year-old building anyway.
Simon Cortes, the owner of the Mexican restaurant, said it suffered some water damage, but its hilltop location kept most of the water at bay.
He, too, said Sunday's flood seemed far worse than the one in 2016.
"After Eddie left, I saw a woman come in later who was frantic," he said. "She was so frantic because she witnessed Eddie get swept away."
It was the third major flood since 2011 in Ellicott City, which was founded in 1772 at the site of a gristmill along the banks of the Patapsco River. Its location in a valley, where the river converges with two major creeks, has made it particularly susceptible to flooding.
Some are already asking whether enough was done after the last flood to prevent a similar disaster. Hogan said temporary improvements were in place and more things were in the works to reduce the community's vulnerabilities. But he said big changes take time, and no one expected such a huge flood so soon after 2016.
Officials said Monday that only 30 percent of a flood mitigation project initiated after the 2016 flood had been completed.
Frustrated residents said the county should have made far more progress. When asked at a news conference about those concerns, Kittleman said, "We have plenty of time to address those issues. Right now, we're talking about people's lives." He added: "You can't get that much done in 22 months. It's not like we've done nothing."
Sally Tennant, owner of Discoveries, a craft store on Main Street, said she and other residents met with officials a few weeks ago and complained that development around Ellicott City over the past 10 years has made the town vulnerable.
"The devastation is far worse than last time," said Tennant, whose shop was damaged before by flooding. "If they don't do the mitigation they need to, we'd be idiots to reopen. We might be idiots to reopen anyway."
Information for this article was contributed by Michael E. Miller and Ian Shapira of The Washington Post; and by David McFadden of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/29/2018