ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — Kindness amid chaos.
From offering survivors a fresh change of clothes, a shower or giving a helping hand that meant the difference between life and death.
Humanity at its best was on display during the 2016 flood.
Jason Barnes is the owner of All Time Toys, but you may better know him from a moment seen around the world: a human chain standing against the raging river down Main Street to save a driver caught in the rapids.
“I didn't want to watch someone die on my shift,” he said.”I just couldn't live that way, just watching something happen like that. It's not in my DNA, I guess.”
Before deciding to wade into the waters, Barnes watched his store flood, his red grand marquee washing down the road.
Searching for higher ground with others who were caught in it, they heard hollering and saw yet another car doing down.
Except this time, someone was in it.
Barnes acted solely on instinct.
“I remember seeing the trash can coming dead at me, and then I tried to move a couple of steps away from it, and then the next thing I know I’m, you know, grabbing onto the road,” Barnes recalls.
The video shows Barnes getting violently washed away.
But miraculously, he gets up, covered in only cuts and bruises. The group then links arms to help to bring the driver to safety.
An image that became a symbol of the city’s resilience that would be needed twice over.
Where a similar act of heroism would end in disaster and heartbreak.
Remembering Sgt. Eddison Hermond as a hero
In May 2018, 39-year-old Staff Sergeant Edison Hermond waded into the flood waters as they rose once more and someone needed help.
“He could have just stayed inside, and been fine, but there was someone in need,” Alicia Armstrong told WMAR-2 News. “What he would do for his family and his friends is what he would do for strangers.”
The Maryland National Guardsman, though off duty, did not hesitate to help an older woman trying to escape the natural disaster, making the ultimate sacrifice that Memorial Day weekend.
She says while heroes come and go, he’ll always be her older brother.
“I just remember always having fun with him. He would walk me to school, and so like in between, we would like freestyle and I was horrible at it, but he was good,” she recalls.
Both were raised by a single mother whom Armstrong presented the American flag, as part of the Honor Guard at Hermond’s funeral.
“We're a Christian family,” Armstrong said. “His actions were very heroic, very selfless, and I like to believe that he received his crown in heaven."
