Short Fresno storm packed a big punch

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Thursday night's storm left scattered problems and inundated storm drains in Fresno. The storm was short, but it packed a big punch in isolated areas.

Brooke Peyton spent Friday morning cleaning up after Mother Nature. The wind knocked a limb off her tree, overnight, "now, I'm just sweaty and dirty and trying to get this done," she said while breaking up branches outside her Fresno home.

It's a big job but just part of the mess the storm left behind on Wishon Avenue. Down the street, a man armed with a broom swept and cleared a storm drain so the city wouldn't have to. His neighbor, Gerry Bill said, the city probably has bigger problems like the Wishon flooding and that sort of thing."

The bigger problem was just a couple blocks away at the Wishon underpass. On Thursday night, water swallowed the street, along with the cars that tried to drive through it. Fortunately, no one got hurt and it was clear by morning. Scott Mozier, the city's public works director said, "we had a sweeper clearing mud and debris, a loader, a water truck to get it cleaned up and pumped out."

The pumps were also going in places where there isn't any flood control. Areas like Shaw and Highway 99, near Theresa Bernal's home. She didn't see much rain in person but she did see it on TV, "I kept saying, come over here, come over here but it missed us, " Bernal added.

As for the flooded streets, the city says the storm drain system was working fine. It's just not built to handle the kind of rain that fell on Wishon Avenue in such a short amount of time.