Maryland teen dies after getting trapped in storm drain during floods

Maryland teen dies after getting trapped in storm drain during floods

A 13-year-old boy died in Mount Airy, Maryland, after getting trapped in a storm drain Thursday during torrential rains along the East Coast that caused widespread flooding, uprooted trees and brought hundreds of flights to a halt.

Mount Airy, a town 40 miles north of Washington, received about 4 inches of rain Thursday afternoon into early evening, one of the highest totals in the region.

The Mount Airy Police Department said the incident happened “during the height of the storm” at about 5:20 p.m., when the teen became “trapped in a storm drain” after he was caught in “rapidly rising floodwaters” near an apartment complex along Watersville Road, according to a news release.

Doug Alexander, a spokesman for the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company, said in an interview Friday morning that according to an initial investigation, the teen and other children were playing with a ball in the rain in a grassy area near the apartment complex where he lived. The rain grew heavier.

“All of a sudden, the water got rushing faster and faster,” Alexander said. “It was raining torrentially, and in no time, the water was 5 feet deep” at the pipe near where the children were playing. Alexander said a nearby stormwater pond was also discharging water from an overflow pipe.

In just a few minutes, Alexander said, the area became a 30- to 40-foot-wide river.

“Water was just rolling in from each side,” Alexander said. “The pressure from that water was so much that the child could not get out. It was pushing him into the pipe.”

Alexander said about 50 firefighters and police officers worked for more than an hour trying to pump water out of the area and pull the teen out of the drain pipe, which was about 18 to 20 inches in diameter.

“They could feel him, but they couldn’t get him out,” Alexander said. “He was stuck in the pipe.”

The teen was eventually recovered but “unfortunately, succumbed to injuries sustained during the event,” Police Chief Michael Ginevra said in the department’s statement.

On the police department’s Facebook page, more than 100 people left messages of condolences and tributes to the rescuers who helped in the effort. Holly Michaelson McGrath posted that she “drove through that area right before the sirens started.” She said the “flooding was awful … My heart aches for that poor boy and his family.”

Across the Washington region, the flash flooding turned roads into dangerous, fast-moving rivers.

Next to a tree at right, an 8-year-old stands atop a submerged vehicle in the Potomac area of Maryland. Inside the vehicle were a woman and a 2-year-old. All three were rescued.

Just before rush hour in Montgomery County, Maryland, emergency personnel rescued an 8-year-old child as he stood atop a submerged car in which a woman and 2-year-old were trapped. Rescuers crossed roughly 200 feet of floodwater to reach the vehicle at the intersection of Bradley Boulevard and Mercy Hollow Lane in the Potomac area, officials said.

Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service said that the rescue was a “high-stakes incident under rapidly changing conditions” and that crews routinely train for such situations.

During Thursday's flash floods, emergency personnel rescued an 8-year-old boy standing on top of a car and a 2-year-old child and woman who were inside the vehicle in the Potomac area of Maryland.

The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang said that in parts of northern Fairfax and southwest Montgomery counties, rain fell at a rate of 2 to 3 inches in an hour.

In D.C., fire officials said a driver managed to exit their vehicle after a tree fell on top near Connecticut Avenue and Chesapeake Street NW. The driver was treated at the scene.

Across the region, the heaviest rain fell in three swaths: from around Frederick, Maryland, through Mount Airy and Baltimore; from Leesburg, Virginia, through Potomac and Bowie in Maryland; and from Bull Run through Burke and Fort Hunt in Virginia. The National Weather Service received reports of flooding in all three of these swaths, where up to 2 to 4 inches of rain fell.

States of emergency were issued in New York and New Jersey. Flooding caused rain to pour into parts of New York City’s subway system.

Jason Samenow and Dan Stillman contributed to this report.