A watery escape for one family in Raleigh flooding
Strong storms created a flood of problems near downtown Raleigh Monday evening.
Most of the flooding issues arose from Raleigh's Pigeon House Branch, the long creek buried in culverts along Capital Boulevard.
Pigeon House briefly spilled over its banks -- trapping drivers on Peace Street and turning parts of Capital Boulevard into a river.
But while many drivers made it through the flash floods, Anna Kusterer was not so lucky. Flood waters on Peace Street rushed into her car.
"It was up to my thighs and I'm about 5'7," Kusterer described. "So about almost to my blue jean shorts, (the water was) pretty high."
Kusterer's Mercedes crossover SUV wasn't drivable afterward. Her 5-year-old and 3-year-old daughters were clutching her close, so shaken by what happened.
With their vehicle taking on water, beginning to drift and the little girls in the back seat, Kusterer said her mommy instincts kicked in quickly. She said she crawled in the back to get the girls out.
"I just wanted to get them out of there. I didn't know if something electrical could go wrong while we were floating in the water. So, it was just a quick reaction to climb out the window," Kusterer said.
There was also flooding on Atlantic Avenue.
That's where Jessica Burroughs rushed out of a workout at her gym in a mad dash to save her car from the rising flood on Atlantic and Hodges Avenues.
"It was just below the floorboards on my car, so 2 inches below it. If I opened the car door and waited another minute it would've been coming in the car," Burroughs said.
The rain that came down in sheets on Fayetteville Street left a flooded and muddy mess in Raleigh's Moore Square.
After a quick-moving storm, so much damage in so little time.
"(I've never seen the water get) that high that fast. It was wild how quickly that happened," Kusterer said.
Kusterer says her car is dead after her run in with the flood.
Her emergency was one of over 40 calls that came in to Raleigh 911 between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. for an accident or disabled vehicle during all that rain.
The front will continue to move north into the mid-Atlantic Tuesday, but it will leave behind a very humid atmosphere which will lead to more thunderstorms by the afternoon. Temperatures Tuesday will again be mainly in the 80s.
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Typical hot, humid August weather will continue on Wednesday through Friday with enough sunshine each day to boost afternoon readings near 90 degrees and there will be enough moisture to support scattered afternoon and evening thunderstorms.
Warmer weather pushes in this weekend.
