Jefferson City was hit with a large amount of rain and damaging winds Sunday, leading to widespread power outages and flash flooding.
The National Weather Service's Doppler Radar estimated 1-3 inches of rain fell in many portions of Central Missouri between about 3:30-5:30 p.m. Sunday, according to Meteorologist Gary Schmocker.
Jefferson City Operations Division Director Britt Smith said crews were out early to start cleaning up the city's stormwater system after the heavy rain.
"It's probably the worst, most intense rain storm I've seen in my career here," Smith said. "We've got reports of anywhere from 4-6 inches of rain fell over an hour and a half to two hours. That kind of intense rain was well over the 100-year rain."
A 100-year rain refers to an intense rainstorm with rainfall that has only a 1 percent probability of happening.
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Jefferson City's stormwater system is designed to handle a 25-year rain and can be routed for a 100-year rain to make sure structures aren't harmed even if specific areas overflow, Smith said.
What Jefferson City got Sunday was more than the culverts and drains could handle, Smith said, with some reports labeling it a 500- or even 1,000-year rain.
Although most of the area was hit by the rain and some flooding issues, Smith said they saw the most issues from the center of the city going out to the east side.
All that floodwater carries any debris that fell into the creeks or ditches and collects in the city's culverts.
Smith said they spent most of Monday cleaning out culverts throughout the city and even had to bring in a larger piece of equipment to pull out logs up to 16 inches in diameter in one culvert.
"Although smaller in size, brush and everything down to twigs - you get enough twigs together, they can clog a 24-inch culvert," Smith said.
Smith said they worked on larger culverts first, working their way out to other areas, and were able to get a majority of the work done Monday, but are looking for other problem areas.
With more rain in the forecast, Smith said crews will likely be out repeatedly this week.
Smith said residents can call the Department of Public Works at 573-634-6410 during business hours to report stormwater issues. Outside of business hours, residents can call the Jefferson City Police Department non-emergency line at 573-634-6400 if necessary.
Due to the large amount of water, some residents experienced flooding in their homes.
Jefferson City Fire Department officials said flooding was reported at residences in the 1500 block of East McCarty Street, 400 block of Christopher Place, and at homes on Bald Hill Road and East Elm Street.
Along with flooding, the city experienced overnight power outages from the storm.
A spokesperson for Ameren Missouri said at the highest peak there were 2,500 customers in the area without power Sunday evening. Within an hour, the number was down to 500. As of 4 p.m. Monday, there were only two residents in the area without power, according to Ameren's outage map.
Mark Cross, who lives on Honeysuckle Lane near Wears Creek on the east side of Jefferson City, said his home lost power early in the evening and it was off for about 16 hours. About 114 households in his area were without power, he said.
"(Ameren) said there was a line on a tree and it was kind of in an isolated area, and it sounded like they were having problems trying to get to it," Cross said.
Cross received several text message updates throughout the night and early morning, with the last estimating the power would be restored by 10 a.m., but the power came back on around 9 a.m Monday.