When Mariah Cohee saw the remains of Sweet Elizabeth Jane, a clothing boutique at 8125 Main Street in Ellicott City, her knees buckled and she collapsed to the ground. She moaned.
Cohee, the store's general manager, and Tammy Beideman, the shop's owner, tried to find a way late last night to get a look at the business they have put their life into.
On Monday afternoon, Cohee and Beideman got a taste of closure because, as they said, they desperately needed "to move on."
"For us, it is like a death," Cohee said. "Some like it as an open casket and others like it closed."
Around 1:30 p.m., Howard County Economic Development Authority officials opened up the ravaged street to business owners and residents for the first time since Saturday night's deadly floodwater swept the historic town, known for its quaint shops and community spirit, into ruin.
County business development official Maria Angelica Vargas said they were working with state and county agencies and decided to lead the effort in getting storeowners to see their businesses.
"We are just trying to know who the business owners are on Main Street [and] make sure every one of them receive whatever they need," Vargas said. "[The trips] let them see what everything looks like from the outside because they can't go in. At the same time, they're kept as informed as possible on what's going on. We want to make sure they're not left behind."
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman called the area a "war zone" and called on the County Council to convene a special session in order to extend the state of emergency he declared after the flash flooding destroyed parts of the city.
The county code requires the council authorize any local state of emergency that lasts longer than seven days. In an executive order calling for the special session, Kittleman said the flooding disaster would last much longer than that.
The emergency "continues to threaten health, safety, welfare, and property in the affected area," Kittleman wrote in the order.
At least two dozen storeowners flowed in and out of the St. Peter's Episcopal Church basement along Rogers Avenue, where the Economic Development Authority had established a temporary command center from which to take people via Gator buggies to the heart of the wreckage. Storeowners anxiously waited to witness the damage done to their businesses.
"I feel like the whole world can see our stores on Facebook and the governor can stand in your building and you can't until now? It's incredibly hard," said Beideman, who opened Sweet Elizabeth Jane in 2011.
With a gray sky overhead, as droplets of rain fell, Beideman peered into the gutted building. Shattered light bulbs hung unlit from the ceiling, surrounded by pitted wood and an upturned floor. A tree trunk pierced the storefront. Colorful remnants of clothing, some with hangers still attached, were twisted around the trunk of the tree.
But the night of the flooding, at around 8 p.m. on Saturday as the shop closed, Beideman got a call from staff. She was in an elevator at American University attending a volleyball game.
Staff members Sarah Huber, Mina Harrison and Natalie Walterhoefer told Beideman water was coming through the floor. Their shop's banner, "God Save the Queen," fell off the walls. The walls shook. The store felt like it was caving in, staff told Beideman.