Cleanup Underway After Md. Flash Flooding, Va. Deadly Tornadoes
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Assessing the damage. Cleanup is now underway after deadly tornadoes, severe flooding and record setting rainfall slammed Maryland and much of the East Coast.
WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren with more on the flooding in Maryland and deadly tornadoes in Virginia.
Sky Eye Chopper 13 was over the muddy mess on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway as crews worked to get the major artery open again after water flooded both lanes just inside the Beltway.
"Oh my gosh. That is pretty crazy," said Lindsey Callahan.
Baltimore's DPW cleared storm drains and reported at least three sewer overflows that sent more than 100,000 gallons of wastewater into the harbor.
"It's not something we're happy about. It's something, obviously, we work to prevent," said Jeffrey Raymond, Department of Public Works.
The powerful storm system hit the region hard and killed at least eight people nationwide, with the National Weather Service fielding 400 calls about damaging winds, flash floods, at least 26 confirmed tornadoes and heartbreak to the south in Virginia, where twisters killed four people.
"And I see the houses over there, and I'm like, 'How in the world... How did anybody get out,'" one woman said.
"But with the grace of god, this does not happen in the middle of the night. And I think if that had been the case, there would have been many more fatalities," said Gov. Terry McAuliffe, (D) Virginia.
Some of the worst damage in Maryland was in Montgomery County. An elderly man is lucky to be alive after his basement wall collapsed.
In Germantown, 70 mile-per-hour wind gusts uprooted trees.
"By the time my husband got to the front door, they were all up and gone," one woman said. "I swear it was that fast."
With the ground saturated, the potential for flooding remains--especially in low-lying and coastal areas--from a storm system that some will never forget.
This is the first time Virginia has had killer tornadoes ever in the month of February.
