Bryan Baerg, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Wichita, said the roughly 4 inches of rain that fell over the Memorial Day weekend saturated the ground. Then, this hard rainfall in a short amount of time was too much for drainage systems to keep up with.

Powerful storms and torrential rain are inundating the Heartland – including Kansas, where first responders in Wichita used a boat to save a driver that was surrounded by flood waters inside her car.