First responders in Frederick County, Maryland, have saved dozens of people from dangerous flood waters that drowned some of the area's streets.
The fire department has rescued 75 people from vehicles that were stranded, disabled or washed from the roadway, county fire chief Tom Owens said earlier Thursday.
On Tuesday night alone, fire and rescue crews made more than 60 rescues county-wide, said Vivian Laxton, the communications director for Frederick County Government.
During one incident, floodwaters swept a man's car off a road that had buckled and carried the car away. A drone camera captured video the next day of the car submerged in water with plants and debris.
"In 15 minutes the water went from about a foot to more than 9 feet," Laxton said.
The man was not injured, Laxton said.
Frederick County has received nearly 10 inches of rain during heavy rainfall over the past few days, officials said. Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner declared a state of emergency to free up any resources needed to deal with more flooding and any additional damage.
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"We are not restricting travel or asking residents to do anything immediately other than to make sure they use extreme caution during this time period,'' Gardner said.
Laxton said roads that may look like they are safe to cross have often crumbled or disintegrated in the flood, leaving the driver stuck and in danger.
"Roads people take every day -- they have no way to know that the road has disappeared," she said.
No one has been seriously hurt, she said.
"As long as people use their best judgment and don't drive through standing water we hope to be able to say the same thing in a week," Laxton said.
Meanwhile, the city of Frederick has asked residents to limit water use. City officials say the city's waste water treatment plant is at risk of additional overflow.
Rain is expected to continue to fall through Saturday.
