ELECTION: Ocean City Mayor
Concerts, fireworks and light shows among the many activities on tap this weekend as Worcester County celebrates Labor Day PAGE 49
Rick Meehan will face his first opponent ever in the November municipal election PAGE 18
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . 46 CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . 77 ENTERTAINMENT . . . . 53 LEGALS . . . . . . . . . . . 82
LIFESTYLE . . . . . . . . . 49 OPINION . . . . . . . . . . 20 OUT&ABOUT . . . . . . . . 62 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . 38
STEPHEN DECATUR FALL SPORTS PREVIEW…PAGE 38
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PHOTO COURTESY BELIEVE IN TOMORROW
AUGUST 31, 2012
St. Martins
Ocean Pines
Berlin
FLOODINGHITSBERLIN,ST.MARTINS Water as deep as 5 feet in some areas; occupied vehicles swept from roadways NANCY POWELL ■ Staff Writer (Aug. 31, 2012) Most people watched rising water on the roads Saturday from their windows. Taryn Walterhoefer was swimming in it near Berlin at midnight. Walterhoefer, an Ocean City Today employee, was one of many who were caught up in what long-time residents say was the worst thunderstorm they had ever witnessed. In addition to the almost
continuous lightning and thunder that began about an hour after sunset and lasted well into the morning, the storm dumped an unprecedented 13 inches of rain on the Berlin area, flooding homes, yards, roads and highways. Walterhoefer, who said she had never before witnessed a flashflood or understood precisely what it entailed, found herself in one around midnight.
She had left a cookout near Berlin and was driving south on Harrison Road between Germantown Road and Hayes Landing Road when she rounded a curve and ran into a wall of water. “I hit a flood, a river,” she said Monday. “I was in it. It just swept [my car] away.” The flood carried her car off the road, where it joined three other abandoned vehi-
cles. Walterhoefer said she did not have much choice of what to do. “I had to swim away from my car,” she said. She only had to swim a few feet to reach the road, and then she started walking to find help. Finding none, she returned to her car, this time walking through chestdeep water, to retrieve her See SOME on Page 11
Patrick Michael ‘Scunny’ McCusker
Late restaurateur remembered for generosity, spirit ‘Scunny’died after he was struck in resort last Friday NANCY POWELL ■ Staff Writer (Aug. 31, 2012) The sudden death of a Baltimore restaurateur last Friday deeply touched many people in the resort, in addition to those in the city. “That news was like a ton of bricks hitting Ocean City,” said Buck Mann, owner of Mann Properties and a longtime friend of Patrick Michael ‘Scunny’ McCusker, on Monday. “He was one of the good guys.” McCusker, 49, of Cockeysville, was riding his bicycle on 132nd Street when he collided with a bus traveling in the northbound bus lane at about 8:40 p.m. He was seriously injured and treated at the scene by Ocean City emergency medical personnel. He was taken by ambulance to Atlantic General Hospital and then transferred to Peninsula Regional Medical Center where he later died. McCusker owned two restaurants, Nacho Mama’s and Mama’s on the Half Shell, and was well known in the Baltimore and Ocean City areas for his generosity. For each of the Michael Mann Golf Tournaments, which raised money for Children’s House by the Sea, McCusker would send 25 Orioles tickets to be used as prizes. See McCUSKER on Page 32