HARRISBURG, Pa. - The severe storm on Wednesday afternoon prompted a swift-water rescue as well as the shutdown of a major street in the city.
Akram Khan, a delivery man, says he and his father were in Khan's car on Derry Street near 18th Street when the car got stuck in the high flood waters.
The water kept rising, about halfway up the windows, he said.
Khan was "pretty scared because the waters go up and up, we think it's going to be down, but it kept going up and up and we called to 911 and they got here to help us," he said.
Fire crews were able to pull the men to safety and without injury, but the car has a damaged transmission, Khan said.
Neighbors helped crews by clearing the storm drains nearby, allowing the waters to recede, according to Robert Dillard, one of the men who helped out.
Just a few blocks away, Market Street between 13th and 15th streets had to be shut down for several hours Wednesday as flood waters reached almost three feet high, neighbors said.
"It rained constantly, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, maybe more, then hail, then rain some more and then finally it stopped," resident Michael Carter said. "And then I got a chance to clean the drains so the water can go down."
Kenneth Noaker had video of cars trying to drive through the flood waters, which emergency crews say is something drivers should not do.
Instead, as he cleaned up the area around his home, he was frustrated about the litter that clogged the drains, making a bad situation potentially worse.
"Nature, with the leaves and the sticks, you can't stop that, but all the trash that comes down the street from people just not caring about their city, basically this is where it ends up because we pulled more trash out of there than anything else," he said.