A man is dead and another person is missing following flooding at an apartment complex in Rockville, Maryland, that also displaced at least 150 people Wednesday morning.
The 19-year-old who died in the flood was identified as Melkin Daniel Cedillo. WTOP’s news partners Telemundo Washington spoke to his mother Daisy, who was with him as water flooded their apartment.
“I could have never imagine this; He was just by my side,” Daisy said in Spanish. “My God, this pain is too much for me. This pain has no comparison to anything, my god.”
Watch the Telemundo video:
Shiera D. Goff, with Montgomery County police, said fire and rescue received multiple calls about flooding in apartments around 3:50 a.m. at Rock Creek Woods Apartments on Twinbrook Parkway.
“It was the terrace-level apartments that were flooded,” Goff said, adding that rescue crews were able to “evacuate about 10 people from their windows.”
She said another person is unaccounted for.
Three people were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. A firefighter was also taken in with minor injuries.
Water Rescues @MontgomeryCoMD (9/1) Flooded roads, power outages, many apartment(s) in Rockville (Twinbrook Parkway) flooded & people rescued https://t.co/iTWPkC8Ywd pic.twitter.com/8eL5IhWjFe
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) September 1, 2021
“The water inside of some these apartments was almost completely the ceiling level,” Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said about the Rock Creek apartments.
“I was just sleeping and then all of a sudden I started hearing running water from the door,” said Christian Chapa, a resident on one of the lower levels at Rock Creek Woods Apartments. “I went to go check the window in the living room and it was already like halfway covered with water and water was leaking from it.”
Chapa said the door suddenly burst open and water poured in.
“The water was up to my waist,” Chapa said. “I just kind of ran.”
Some of Chapa’s neighbors had to be rescued by boat.
WTOP’s Nick Iannelli reported on the situation live on Facebook Wednesday morning:
After the flooding, Goff said that the Red Cross set up at the Queens Guard Recreation Center.
Residents who may have left the Rock Creek Woods apartments are asked to contact Montgomery County authorities at 301-279-8000 to ensure everyone is accounted for.
“In my 60 years of living in this county, I’ve never seen anything like this,” County Executive Mark Elrich said. “It’s really a scene that you would have expected to see in hurricane country.”
He said officials are “bringing in all the resources” to see what happened and warned that hurricane season is “far from over.”
“It clearly was a tremendous level of rainfall,” said Earl Stoddard, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
Property next to the complex is in the Rockville’s jurisdiction, according to Stoddard. A creek goes into a culvert under the building. There were no obvious blockages in the culvert, Stoddard said, but there was evidence that it spilled over onto the neighboring roadway, and into the basin where the two apartment buildings are.
In addition to the Rock Creek Woods complex, there also were water rescues at Congressional Towers on Congressional Lane near Rockville Pike, according to Goldstein.
The flooding at Congressional Towers was not as severe, but the building’s boiler room had 6 feet of water in it, according to Goldstein.
“That roughly nine-story building will probably be without power until they get that restored and inspected,” Goldstein said.
Another 20 units of people at Congressional Towers have been displaced.
WTOP’s Nick Iannelli reported from Rockville. WTOP’s Rick Massimo, Will Vitka, José Umaña and Colleen Kelleher contributed to this report.
