WATERLOO - Dry ground conditions allowed much of the Cedar Valley to easily absorb a 2-inch downpour Thursday night.

Steve Decker, Waterloo streets superintendent, had not heard of any problems with flash flooding following the storm. However, streets crews were kept busy putting out temporary stop signs after power went out in several Waterloo neighborhoods. Decker knew of outages in the Logan Avenue and Donald street area, near Bishop Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and the intersection of U.S. Highway 20 and Iowa Highway 21.

Ann Thelen, a spokeswoman for MidAmerican Energy, said about 1,400 customers scattered across Black Hawk County lost power during the storm, but all had been restored by this morning.

Ken Podrazik, a National Weather Service meteorologist from Des Moines, said about 2.05 inches of rain fell at the Waterloo Regional Airport between 4 p.m. and early this morning. Other Northeast Iowa communities also hit hard by Thursday's storm included Eldora, where 3.73 inches fell. Grundy Center, Iowa Falls and Dumont all saw more than 2 inches of rain fall.

"The main thing right now is it is looking like there is a good chance of redevelopment this afternoon and then into this evening until early the hours," Podrazik said. "But the heaviest rains should fall south of Waterloo. As far as severe weather, there is a slim chance of that, maybe just some isolated wind and hail. Your main threat is local rain with the potential for flash flooding and heavy runoff."

Thunderstorms erupted across Iowa late Thursday and early this morning, bringing heavy rain to a state that's trying to recover from record flooding a month ago.

The National Weather Service says most of the rain overnight was in central and southern Iowa.

By this morning, almost 4.8 inches of rain had fallen near Ames, with over 3 inches in the Des Moines area.

The heavy rain caused some street flooding in Des Moines, and sent small creeks rising.

Meteorologist Roger Vachalek says there wasn't a lot of severe weather, just a lot of rain in a short period of time.

Thunderstorms on Thursday brought heavy rain to northern Iowa, with almost 3 inches of rain in Waterloo and hail and strong winds around Fort Dodge.

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.