Courtesy Joseph Lopez
A National Guardsman has been found dead two days after he jumped into action to try to save a shopkeeper from rushing floodwaters in Ellicott City, Maryland, and was swept away, police said.
Searchers today found the body of 39-year-old Eddison Hermond, a National Guardsman and Air Force veteran, in the Patapsco River, just across the Baltimore County line, the Howard County Police Department said.
Hermond, of Severn, Maryland, was last seen at about 5:20 p.m. Sunday.
When the flash flooding rushed in, pet food store owner Kate Bowman escaped with her cat from the window of her shop and was in water above her waist when she saw Hermond, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Hermond was at a restaurant with Joseph Lopez, his friend from the Air Force.
“It happened so fast,” Lopez told ABC News of the flooding. “The main street became a river in less than 20 minutes.”
“I could barely see anything and I could barely hear anything” because of the rushing waters, Bowman, 41, told The Baltimore Sun through tears.
Hermond “stepped over the ledge to try to get to me, and he was washed away,” she told the newspaper.
Bowman made it to safety but Hermond was swept away.
“He was trying to save me,” Bowman told The Baltimore Sun. “He’s a hero.”
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SOURCE: ABC News, Emily Shapiro, Becky Perlow and Sabina Ghebremedhin
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