"I've never seen it personally this bad," says Nick Rea sitting outside his relative's rain-soaked home. "Not at all."

He sat in his pickup truck as the rain pounded the Holiday Shores neighborhood near Edwardsville. Rea was watching the water surround his parents home after they left because of rising waters.

"Their whole basement has 3 or 4 feet of water in it," said Rea.

It can't get much worse for Dale Hayden's family's house on Hillsboro Street. A pond formed in the front yard a river ran down the driveway. Then suddenly the basement wall gave way.

     WEBMISTRESS' NOTE: NOT to be confused with Hillsboro Avenue where I live!

"With this big hole it was going in here and going right back out the back door."

Five drains right outside this house and they were not enough for what some say was 8 inches of rain. Others argue was 11.

"I don't know which is right," says Hayden, "but I know it's a lot."

"It won't stop raining," says a stunned Eric Hosto. "My neighbor's house collapsed the walls caved in the basement."

That house on Chapman Street is on top of the hill. There was just too much rain and the soil surrounding the home became unstable.

Many drivers took a chance, trying to drive through the rising waters. Not a good idea according to police who had at least one report of a car stuck in the flood waters at Holiday Shores.

North of Edwardsville, the town of Midway also saw major flash flooding. A homeowner there complains that a nearby field does not have adequate irrigation and on days like Monday the water just floods right down along highway 159 and into her yard.

"It's horrible I mean the rain is so extreme," said Angeline Roberts. "It starts as a river and ends up as a lake."

She says this time the flooding came up so quickly it caught some drivers off guard.

"The road was so bad people had to slow down to like a walk to even get through here the water was rising up past their windows," described Roberts.

Some said this was a holiday they'll never forget even though they'd like to do just that.