From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for July 19, 1973:

Torrential rains had pummeled the area overnight, flooding some roads and providing some awe-inspiring lightning. The storms had dumped an official 4.28 inches of rain on Lawrence in less than 10 hours, with even more recorded in southern Douglas County — 6.52 inches in Worden and 5.8 inches in Baldwin. The severe weather had begun at about 11 p.m. and had continued until shortly after 8 this morning, interrupting sleep for most local residents but leaving the city well above its normal monthly precipitation average of 3.74 inches. Farmers today were welcoming the mid-July rainfall. “It was tremendous for the pastures,” a spokesman for the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service said this morning, “and good for the soybeans, corn and milo…. The farmers welcome it. They wished it wouldn’t have been quite so hard but they’ll take what they get.” Fortunately the rains, though heavy, had not brought any winds and damage reports from the storms were minimal.