CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Many people couldn't wait for the storms to clear Monday because they're already in cleanup and repair mode from the weekend's storms and flooding.
"Almost thought it was like Hurricane Katrina because it wouldn't stop raining," said Shackeel Jones, who lives at the Country Club Apartments.
Apartment employees say two debris-filled storm drains couldn't handle any more water, so it flowed into four apartments-- right through their front doors.
It left inches of water and mud, which neighbors mopped up best they could Monday afternoon.
"I've been seeing some people sweeping the water from their porch steps," Jones said.
Flood waters rose over the Little Sugar Creek Greenway in uptown.
Crews cleared muddy paths with hoses and squeegees.
Some of the biggest booms weren't from lightning or thunder, but trees falling on homes,
Jennifer Lingerfelt was gone when a neighbor's tree came crashing down on her fiancé Dwight Hawkins and their 2-year-old daughter Ava in their Gaston County home.
"He called me and said a tree fell. I said really? He said yes a tree fell on me and Ava," said Lingerfelt.
Hawkins called her name miraculously she was okay, and he was able to get to her. Another family escaped danger today as well.
"As I come out of the bathroom I heard a snap and my first thing was to grab my daughter. She was laying on the bed when the tree fell. And as I went to go grab her the tree came through the roof, and as it came through the roof fell and hit me in the back. I went to go grab her and she was out of sight," said Hawkins.
Another family Grier Heights escaped injuries too.
"I heard a big boom and my wife thought it was thunder but I knew it wasn't, it sounded like an earthquake really," said a Grier Heights neighbor.
Neighbors of the the Agular family woke to the sound, and saw this massive 150 foot white oak crashing into the house next to them on Gene street.
"They said they were in one side of the room so obviously nobody got hurt and the tree fell almost in the middle and they heard it and came out," said the neighbor.
They were all alright, though the house is a total loss. Dwight says, their home is destroyed too, but what's most important is someone watching over their lives.
"The Lord. That's the only way to put it. He had to add a blanket over her. If you look where she was laying, the tree is dead where she was laying. She's not even injured," said Hawkins.
The Red Cross is helping both families with somewhere to stay and belongings since they cannot return now to their homes.
