NEW CASTLE, Ind. (WISH) — Water has receded in New Castle, and the community is picking up the pieces after severe flooding.

The city, located east of Indianapolis, received more than 11 inches of rainfall from severe storms in the past 2 days with weather experts calling it “historic.”

“They had said we’re getting rain, but I haven’t expected anything like this,” said Penny Bowman, who has lived in the community for more than 60 years.

Bowman says the entire Kroger parking lot was flooded, but her faith in her community has not wavered.

“I know this community will pull together because that’s what we do,” she said. “But this parking lot even yesterday you couldn’t drive here. But it still take a lot of time…. It was waist-high and knee-high in some places. It’s sad what happened (in) New Castle and Cambridge City and some of the local places around.”

A majority of the parking lot is dry, but off to the side in a nearby park sits a van and a shopping cart submerged in water.

A few miles down, a section of Riley Road collapsed. It left a crater so large it looks like it could fit several cars inside.

Miles of grass have been transformed into lakes. A park by State Road 3 is blanketed in water. A soccer field by the Preserve village is completely submerged. Only the tops of goal nets could be seen.

Jenny Kinser taught school for 21 years. She said the timing hurt what is normally an exciting time of the year.

“Schools are closed, and it was the beginning of the school year,” she said. “You know kids are devastated. Where I used to live, we couldn’t get by. It was under water.”

Some roads and areas remain flooded.

“I had friends who have water in their basements, and their yards are completely flooded, and they lost trees,” Kinser said. “So, we’ve been helping people. We’ve gone to check on homes and yards.”

The severe storm blew out the roof on the local carshop Riley & Sons. It has been serving the community for 69 years.

An employee said water reached the bottom of the windows at the carshop, nearly 2 feet high. He said it destroyed computers, equipment and 26 cars.

“Everybody says the same thing,” resident Gary Cole said. “It’s the worse (than) they’ve ever seen. I was just checking to see the damage at the Legion to see if they renovated the inside, and it is heartbreaking.”

He biked to the American Legion Post to help out, but it was closed which is the case for a lot of businesses in New Castle.

Residents said they’re cleaning up but staying prepared as more rain is in the forecast.

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