A river of water flowed down North Main Street in Hubbard, forcing residents to abandon their homes Sunday night and seek higher ground.

Residents along East Park Avenue and along Main Street were asked to leave their homes around 9:30 p.m. as a storm dumped water on an area already saturated from last week's rain.

Kim Brant, who lives at Elmwood and Gary streets in Hubbard, grabbed her video camera and taped the scene as a man waded up her street in water up to his knees.

Mrs. Brant and her husband Randy watched as water poured over curbs, sidewalks and driveways.

"A car got stuck, and some people helped pushed him back," Mrs. Brant said. "They've blocked off the street, but for a while it was a real mess."

Many of the main roads were closed leading into Hubbard as rivers of water gushed down the pavement.

Hubbard High School was opened as an emergency shelter, according to a supervisor from the Trumbull County 911.

Other hard-hit Trumbull communities include the village of McDonald and Weathersfield Township.

Area police and fire departments sent aid to Hubbard, including the Brookfield Fire Department, which sent its rescue boat.

All motorists driving through Hubbard were ordered off the roads and told to take shelter in the municipal building, according to a television bulletin.

The National Weather Service reported that up to 2.5 inches of rain fell across southern Trumbull and Mercer counties in four hours. Other areas, such as Sharon, received about an inch of rain, according to the weather service spokesperson.

On this side of the border, southern Mercer County bore the brunt of Sunday's storms, with flooding reported in West Middlesex, Shenango and Springfield townships.

A home at 25 Mabel Lane in Shenango Township had to be evacuated when the house's flooded basement threatened to collapse, a Mercer County 911 supervisor said.

Flooding closed some roads and washed out others.

"We lost a couple of roads, a lot of houses were flooded out," said West Middlesex Fire Chief Bob Lucich.

Roads closed included Penn Avenue and state Route 18 outside the borough. He added that several roads were washed out in Shenango Township as well.

"I've never seen water flowing down through here like it was," he said. "I had a hard time getting a fire truck up the road because of the debris."

The 911 supervisor described "big-time" flooding in several areas of the county. State Route 318, Bedford Road and several smaller roads in Shenango Township were closed by flooding, she said.

Leesburg Station Road and U.S. Route 19 in Springfield Township were closed, as was a section of Methodist Road in Hempfield Township. Grove City, hit hard by last week's rain, also reported flooding, the supervisor said.

In West Salem Township, a house on Lininger Road was hit by lightning and caught fire, causing minor damage, said West Salem Township Fire Chief Tom Hunt.