Following Wednesday night's severe flooding, Butler residents were still cleaning up the damage this morning.

“Our estimate is over 3 inches of rainfall fell in a 90-minute window,” said Fred McMullen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The rains accumulated quickly between 10 and 11:30 p.m.

McMullen said that estimate is indicative of a 100- to 200-year occurrence.

Butler resident Mike Blontz, who was hosing down the muddy sidewalk along West Jefferson Street, said he noticed the rising water about 11 p.m. Wednesday.

“It started rising up pretty quick,” he said.

The water came up three steps to his porch, so his residence was not flooded.

During the flooding, Blontz and other people nearby aided an elderly woman stuck in her car across the street.

“We had to help her,” he said.

Blontz said the woman was coming home from bingo when her car became stuck.

He also saw a dumpster float across the road.

“Walking through it, the water came up to my hips,” Blontz said. “It was pretty bad.”

He said people were stranded at the Shell gas station because their vehicles were in the water.

Resident Daryl Butler, who lives at the corner of Broad and New Castle streets, said his basement and car were damaged.

Butler said the water rose above his tires. The car's interior was caked in mud.

Everything in Butler's basement was floating after the rainfall.

“It started receding at 12 or 1,” Butler said.

Butler said it has been at least 13 years since the last time there was serious flooding.

Tom Rettig worked the overnight shift at the Sunoco along West Jefferson Street.

He noticed the heavy rainfall after he arrived at work at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“I just made it,” Rettig said. “I would have been lost in the flood.”

He did not see anything float down the road.

Rettig, who has lived in the city for nearly 60 years, said the flood reminded him of one from the early 1980s.

“We had a terrible flood back then,” he said. “I think this topped it.”

Down Brady Street across from Hays Avenue, Sullivan Run was cluttered with medium-sized trees.