The smell of dank, soggy carpet and the hum of electric fans filled James and Mary Runyon’s home Tuesday. Outside, bits of mulch and dirt clung to the home’s siding about a foot above the ground, marking the water level from the previous night.

Monday’s rains sent more than an inch of water washing into the front rooms of the Runyons’ concrete-slab home on Maverick Lane in the Prairie Park neighborhood — one of the areas hardest hit by flooding during Monday’s torrent. It was the third flood the retired farming couple has endured since moving from Iowa in 1984.

“This is probably the worst one because it come so quick,” said James Runyon, 82.

“We like Kansas. We just picked the wrong house, that’s all we did,” said Mary Runyon, 84.

The Runyons were among dozens of families pulling carpet, mopping floors and putting their yards back together Tuesday.

A series of storms late Monday across northeast Kansas dropped as much as 3 inches of rain in the Lawrence area, spawning tornadoes and pounding the area with hail. Another 1.2 inches of rain fell early Tuesday, and with the threat of more rain overnight. Douglas, Franklin, Jefferson and Shawnee counties remained under a flash flood watch until 6 a.m. today.

“Since this all started, we’ve probably had a hundred calls and they’re still coming,” said Rodney Eisenbarger, owner and president of All-Pro Services, a Lawrence restoration company. “We’ve got a bunch of wet houses out there.”

Eisenbarger said several of the calls came from homeowners in southeast Lawrence whose sump pumps failed when the area lost electrical service.

Piles of discarded carpet sat at the end of driveways throughout the Prairie Park neighborhood. Not far from the Runyons, Marcia and Jay Buzhardt were dealing with the effects of an unwelcome “reservoir” that formed in the back yard of their home at 2604 Cimarron Drive.

His living room flooded by Monday night's storm, James Runyon, 82, hangs his head after spending hours tearing up the carpet and carpet padding throughout his house. Runyon and his wife, Mary, 84, who live on Maverick Lane in southeastern Lawrence, had more than an inch of floodwater across the flooring of their concrete-slab house.

‘Hate that drain’

“There’s a storm drain back there,” Jay Buzhardt said. “But it couldn’t handle all the water. Water was just shooting out of there.”

By night’s end, the Buzhardts’ basement held an inch of water. With the help of their friend Jeff McFarland, the couple spent much of the afternoon pulling up their ruined carpet.

“We love Lawrence, but we hate that drain,” Marcia Buzhardt said. “Our neighbor, who moved two months ago, used to complain to the city about it and you can tell they’ve worked on it. But it’s still a problem.”

Some of the Runyon’s neighbors on Maverick Lane reported a similar experience: helplessly watching water stream out of the drain and toward their homes.

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“The storm sewer system is designed to handle a certain level of intensity,” said City Manager Mike Wildgen, “and when that intensity is exceeded, like it was last night, you get water in streets and coming up in people’s backyards. That was going on in multiple sites across town.”

By the numbers

In all, about 3,200 Westar Energy customers lost power Monday night, mostly in North Lawrence.

Lightning fills the sky behind Corpus Christi Catholic Church, 6001 W. 15th St. Monday night's storm caused flooding throughout Lawrence, knocking out power to some while putting on an electrical show of its own.

“All but about 300 were restored between midnight and 1 a.m.” Tuesday, said Karla Olsen, a Westar spokeswoman. “By 8 a.m., all but 50 were back on, and now they’re all back on.”

In many cases, Olsen said, repairs were delayed by power substation equipment being under water.

Emergency workers came to the aid of 39 motorists stranded in rain during the storm, but no one was injured. That included 16 water rescues by Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical, and 23 cases of unoccupied cars stuck in water, which were handled by Lawrence Police.

Lightning struck a home in the 2700 block of Inverness Court about 9:20 p.m. Monday, causing about $10,000 in damage, said Mark Bradford, Fire & Medical deputy chief.

Jeff MacFarland helps friend Marcia Buzhardt pull up her carpet in her basement at 2604 Cimarron Drive. Water from Monday's rains poured into her home.

Lightning is suspected of disabling two emergency-warning sirens, one in Eudora and another at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds. The sirens were up and running by Tuesday afternoon, said Paula Phillips, director of Douglas County Emergency Management.

Lightning also stuck the city’s wastewater treatment plant, 1400 E. Eighth St., and “fried a bunch of controls,” Wildgen said.

The police department took 100 calls for service between 7 p.m. and midnight Monday, including 24 alarm calls, many caused by power outages, said Sgt. Dan Ward, a police spokesman.

Campus soaked

On the Kansas University campus, crews worked into the early morning Tuesday, mopping and sucking up water with wet vacuums. Inside the Jaybowl in the Kansas Union, the water wasn’t deep — “it was just everywhere,” said Michael Fine, the bowling alley’s recreation director.

He said one employee stayed until 7:30 a.m. cleaning up, and the bowling lanes were ready for a 9:30 a.m. class. Some ceiling tiles may have to be replaced, but damage was minimal, Fine said.

A similar clean-up effort happened in the Oread Bookshop in the Union and on other side of campus at Oliver Residence Hall.

“We keep everything four inches or higher in that building because that’s not the first time that’s happened,” said Vince Avila, maintenance director for KU’s student-housing department. “We just extracted the water and mopped it up and we were good to go.”

Tony Barron, left, and Kellen Selk, of Lawrence Parks and Recreation, scoop up debris from the basketball court at Buford M. Watson Jr. Park. The court was covered in mulch and silt Tuesday. It was about 6 feet underwater after the storm that rolled through Lawrence Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

Oliver Hall residents who were seeking shelter during a tornado alarm had to be evacuated from the basement because of flooding. Students were told to go to the second, third and fourth floors after the flooding began.

One student said that by that time, it appeared the tornado danger had passed.

“I’m from southwest Kansas, so I’m used to this,” said Nathan Breeden, a freshman from Mullinville. “But for a lot of the out-of-state people, you could see the fear in their eyes.”