WATERBURY, Conn. -- The round of storms that hit the state Thursday dropped about 5 inches of rain on Waterbury, leaving residents with cleanup duty as the Fourth of July weekend begins.

"We had four thunderstorms, and the rain was coming down in buckets," resident Lucille Decarolis, 80, said. "It came straight down, and it rained and rained."

She said the rain washed rock and gravel all over Mark Lane, which is just below a former city dump. She said no trash came down from the former dump, however, because it's been capped.

But Decarolis, who still drives and works, said she could barely get her car out of her driveway to get to her job.

She said the city should help clean up because the damage could affect property values and she's trying to sell her home.

On Long Hill Road near the Waterbury-Wolcott town line, the heavy downpours washed the soil away from the road, causing the asphalt to cave in.

Crews said they had to use a payloader to unclog city drains on the road.

On her paper route Friday morning, Waterbury Republican carrier Rebecca Harmon said that about half of the homes she delivered to had some kind of storm damage, often in the form of driveway damage.

"I've hit a couple of pot holes," she said. "Yeah, it's really amazing the amount of damage that can be done in a short period of time. I've just had to avoid not walking into them, so I've had to throw them (the newspapers) a lot farther than I usually have to."

Louie Caban said the street was his evening's entertainment. He said he sat out on his front porch and watched a couch someone had left out with the trash wash down the street.

"Yep, right down the hill," he said. "It was going pretty fast."

Cars going to the Wal-Mart and Panera plaza off Wolcott Street also ran into trouble.

"The water was probably, if we were going to walk it into it, hip high," Panera employee Stefani Sesusarchick said. "Even though there were customers saying, 'Don't go, don't go,' they were going anyway and getting stuck."

She said the parking lot was like a lake on Thursday night, but on Friday, crews worked to clean up the mess.

City officials couldn't be reached for comment because many offices were closed for the Fourth of July.

The rain started at about 3 p.m., leaving drivers with almost no visibility at one point.

Residents said that because of the fact that Waterbury doesn't have many sidewalks, the water runs right off of the road and into their yards. They said they're afraid they'll have to shell out a lot of money to pay for repairs.

Residents said they also lost power during the storm. Thousands of power outages were also reported because of the storms, and Channel 3 Early Warning Weather Meteorologist Scot Haney said there's a chance more storms would hit the area again on Friday.