RACINE - Island and Lincoln parks were flooded and water gushed over Horlick Dam, while children spent Sunday canoeing in their yards just off 6 Mile Road.

Most of the water that flooded the Racine area came by river from southern Milwaukee County, said Commissioner of Racine Public Works Richard Jones.

"We are at the bottom of the drainage basin. It doesn't take long to get here," Jones said.

From 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. Sunday the Racine area received 1.9 inches of rain, said a representative from the National Weather Service office in Sullivan.

Since Saturday afternoon, between 3 and 8 inches of rain fell from central Wisconsin to Milwaukee County, according to the National Weather Service. Another 1 to 2 inches of rainfall were possible in southeastern Wisconsin overnight.

The rain could continue into the week as well. There is an 80 percent chance of rain today for Racine and a 30 percent chance Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

The Department of Public Works called in 30 employees Sunday to work overtime, helping with flooded areas, Jones said.

Workers placed sandbags along Parkview Drive and the Spring Street pedestrian bridge. They also responded to calls about clogged drains and closed flooded streets and parks. The city closed Island Park, Lincoln Park, Horlick Drive and Domanik Drive, Jones said as of late Sunday night.

Gerald Montgomery, 56, was not impressed with the city's sandbagging efforts Sunday morning. He lives at 2207 Spring St., just across from Lincoln Park, and watched the Root River rise all day.

"It's coming through the sandbags now," Montgomery said at about 3 p.m. Sunday. "What they have there is very much

insufficient."

He has seen people sandbagging across from his house at least 60 times in his life and he was worried that the sandbags would not hold, he said.

"I've lived here a long time and I've never seen it this bad," Montgomery said.

When he woke up Sunday morning the water was still inside the river banks, he said. By 3 p.m. the water was covering a third of the Lincoln Park baseball diamond and there was two to three feet of running water covering another nearby property, Montgomery said.

Mayor Gary Becker said early Sunday that he was not shocked by the flooding.

"For four, five, six inches of rain, it's not a big deal," Becker said. "Where we have water is where you would think we would have water. There are no big surprises that I've come across."

Becker's own basement at 320 Chatham St. had a little water in it Sunday morning, he said.

Around 9 Sunday night, Becker changed his mind.

"It's turning into a bigger deal than we thought," Becker said. "We might have some serious problems before this is all said and done."

There were at least six locations around Racine where sanitary sewer overflow was channeled into Root River or Lake Michigan, said Keith Haas, general manager of Racine Water and Wastewater Utilities.

These locations are certified with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Haas said.

"The sewer system couldn't handle the volume," Haas said. "If we didn't have those locations, water would back up into a lot more basements."

The Wastewater Utility Department has already received at least a dozen calls about water or sewage backups in basements around the city, Haas said. City officials will determine later whether the city is responsible for the water backups or if the individual property owners are, Haas said.