Farmer Justin Kleffner, of Parkville, Mo., found himself cutting a ditch to let water out of a corn field east of Lawrence on Friday, June 5, 2015. Recent heavy rains in the Lawrence area have saturated the soil.

Across eastern and central Kansas, a year’s worth of severe drought has evaporated in the span of two months. Now several communities have a new problem — too much rain.

Douglas County farmer Dale Robb works his field near Lawrence on Friday morning. If

As of Sunday night, only a few counties in northwest and southwest Kansas still were classified as under moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. For the rest, the slate had been washed clean.

Since Jan. 1, Lawrence has received 17.6 inches of precipitation, compared with an expected year-to-date total of 17.4 inches. Most of that rainfall came after May 1, notes Brandon Drake of the National Weather Service in Topeka.

“The winter was pretty dry,” he said. “The majority of that has been since the end of April.”

All the rain has been a headache for some area homeowners. As the water table rises, it puts pressure on home foundations, explained Rodney Eisenbarger, owner of All Pro Services Inc., which provides flood damage cleanup and restoration in Lawrence.

Dale Robb ducks out of the damp weather Friday on his farm near Lawrence.

Eisenbarger said his company’s business related to water damage has almost tripled since mid-May, with some homes flooding more than once.

“It’s been nonstop (water) extraction, cleanup, structure drying and dehumidification,” he said.

All the excess water goes to the place of least resistance — the basement — Eisenbarger explained.

“People have had sump pump failure, their electricity go out and foundation problems.”

Douglas County farmers also are hoping for the rain to stop. The heavily saturated soil has forced farmers to delay planting their soybeans, which usually are sewn throughout May and early June.

Dale Robb, whose farm is about 5 miles northwest of Lawrence, said Sunday he is at least three weeks behind in his planting.

“We got a little planted,” he acknowledged, “but we’ve got quite a bit to go yet.”

Robb said by this time of year, he usually has all of his soybeans planted, but that owing to all the rain, he only has about 45 percent in the ground so far. And the planting delay will mean a later harvest, increasing chances his soybeans will be affected by frost or cold weather, Robb noted.

After another wet weekend, an additional inch of rain could fall in Lawrence between Monday and Tuesday, Drake told the Journal-World on Sunday night. But clearer skies are on the horizon, he added, with a chance to dry out starting Wednesday.

In the meantime, Robb will continue waiting out the storms.

“Rain just stops everything,” he said. “You just have to live with it.”