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CHARLOTTE -- The Charlotte region was washed out by storms Monday night. The hardest hit areas got dumped with more than two inches of rain and most of that came in a very short amount of time, pushing creeks and streams to the brink.

But barring a few problems here and there, the rain stopped, the creeks crested and all took a big sigh of relief.

"The creek got up right to top of bank and spilled over just a little bit in this area," said Tim Trautman of CMU Stormwater Services.

In the past several years, Stormwater Services took flooding trouble spots like the old Cavalier Apartments along Briar Creek and turned them into flood plains. A portion of Little Sugar Creek used to be concrete culverts, pushing rushing water downstream as fast as possible. Stormwater restored it to a natural stream to help during potential floods.

That water made it down to the flood plain known as Freedom Park.
“If it starts to flood in the parking lot, it only takes about 30 minutes for the entire park to flood," said Trautman.

The park was shut down Monday evening after strong storms caused the creek to spill over. The overnight storm finished the job. "We had multiple truck loads of debris," said Trautman.

Now, the cleanup continues.