WILMINGTON -- As the sun peeked through clouds Tuesday morning, most of Racine Drive was a muddy mess.

Many residents of ground-level apartment units along the road, who evacuated during Monday night’s flooding, returned to find mulch and knee-high water stains on their walls and furniture.

More than 6.5 inches of rain fell Monday night – a record for the date and the 14th-biggest rainfall ever recorded in Wilmington.

It flooded hundreds of apartments north of the University of North Carolina Wilmington and left motorists stranded when their cars wouldn’t budge in water that filled streets and parking lots. Want the whole story?