ATLANTA -- Peachtree Creek jumped its bank and swelled more than 18 feet past its normal width. Cars got stuck in the rushing water and homes were flooded past the first floor.

Julian Phillips came to his mother's home on Sagamore Drive in Buckhead at 4 a.m. He expected to find some flooding, but not as much as he found.

"All my kids' toys are floating around in the playroom back in there," said Phillips.

Phillips decided he would need an alternate mode of transportation to clean up the mess. He used a canoe to get into the basement and retrieve some items.

Just outside the Phillips home, the flood waters continued to threaten the roadway. Drivers like Ira VanWagner thought they could make it through the water.

"I overextended my bounds, tried to go across water that was deeper than my car," said VanWagner.

VanWagner was able to push the car out of the deep spots, but with a flooded engine, couldn't get much further. He said the wait gave him a lot of time to think about what he'll do the next time he comes across water like this.

"Never again, never," said VanWagner. "I didn't use my head."

Phillips said that wait is the worst part, as many residents wonder when the real clean up can begin.

"The creek has to go down first," said Phillips. "Before the creek can go down the river has to go down, and before the river can go down it has to stop raining."