NEWTON ? Heavy rains from a slow-moving storm system centered on three counties in south central Kansas caused flash flooding that closed roads, including a stretch of Interstate 135 for a time, and forced evacuations of a few homes early Thursday.

Although the National Weather Service in Wichita had less than one-half inch of rain, much heavier amounts fell in other parts of the region, including sections of Sedgwick, Harvey and Butler counties.

Chris Bowman, a meteorologist at the Wichita office, said the heaviest total so far from the service’s observers was 8.58 inches at Elbing in northwestern Butler County, with 5.45 inches reported at Newton.

But Jim Schmidt, Butler County’s emergency management director, said radar reports indicated the rainfall could exceed 10 inches in some areas of his county.

He said emergency workers used boats to evacuate people from three residences along Henry Creek, east of Whitewater.

Lon Buller, the emergency management head in neighboring Harvey County, said 12 people were helped from their homes in Newton, and another residence about five miles south of the city was evacuated by boat.

Buller called it an unusual storm that had made its way into Butler County, then seemed to back up up into Harvey and eventually covered about half of the county.

“And it just set there, like it didn’t want to move,” he said.

Buller said several streets in Newton were flooded, and water covered many primary and secondary roads in rural areas of the county. A portion of Interstate 135 near Newton was closed for a time during the night because of the high water.

The city of Sedgwick also had water curb-to-curb on the main street, which typical for heavy storms, Buller said.

By daybreak, the rain had stopped and water was receding. But officials were keeping a close eye on rivers and streams because of concern about what additional rain might mean.

Noting there is a risk of more severe weather on Friday, Schmidt said, “What we’re hoping is that we don’t have any more of those slow movers. We just don’t have room for any more water, and that’s something we’ll be watching all day today.”

Schmidt said both the Whitewater and Walnut rivers were “running pretty good.” There was severe flooding in both river basins in 1998, and Schmidt said that resulted in better monitoring systems put in place since then.

Schmidt said a small thunderstorm that began Wednesday night “just kept regenerating,” eventually forming a wall cloud and a couple of short-lived tornadoes.

He said there were reports the funnels may have touched down briefly, but officials had not confirmed any damage.

“It made for a good evening for the storm chasers,” Schmidt said. “They were all over the place.”

The weather service’s Bowman said there were many reports of one-inch hail throughout the region, with golf ball-size hail in parts of northern Sedgwick County.