By Maggie Downs and Jeremy W. Steele
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Nature wreaked selective havoc on Tristate residents Saturday evening.

Isolated but very heavy storms soaked some Ohio counties, with some areas reporting 3 inches of rain in an hour and more than 4 inches overall.

The deluge left many highways, including Interstate 75 near I-74, waterlogged and closed to traffic for hours.

Just a few miles south, at Great American Ball Park, the Reds-Phillies game was delayed only 29 minutes.

The National Weather Service in Wilmington issued flood warnings for Butler and Hamilton counties from 6:45 p.m. to 11:45 p.m.

But there was little left of the heavy rains, which formed over Dearborn County, by the time they reached Warren and Clermont counties.

"They just ran out of water," meteorologist Don Hughes said of the slow-moving storms.

The heaviest rain fell between Harrison and Blue Ash in Hamilton County, according to the NWS.

About 21,000 customers in Hamilton County lost power by 6 p.m. - the height of the storms - said spokeswoman Kathy Meinke.

By 11 p.m., about 480 households, primarily in the Deer Park area, remained without power.

In Butler County, motorists were instructed to stay off Highway 27 for at least two hours.

In Colerain Township, the police department was swamped with calls at 8 p.m. as drivers abandoned vehicles due to high water on roads.

"We're way too busy to discuss (storm damage)," said one Colerain Township Police dispatcher.

In Fairfield, city crews were preparing at 10:30 p.m. to pump flooded basements.

In Brown County, 4 inches of rain fell between Fayetteville and Mount Orab in less than two hours. The Ohio Department of Transportation spent the evening putting up road signs in the area, warning motorists of high water.

"We've had a few accidents, but we don't yet know if they're high-water related or not," said Trooper Lia Heidel of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Georgetown post.

The Brown County Sheriff's Department shut down state routes 68, 50 and 131. But by 8 p.m., water was starting to recede.

In eastern Kentucky, rescue squads will continue to search a creek in Estill County this morning after a 6-year-old girl was swept away in flooding in Irvine.

About 2:30 p.m. Saturday, a car with the child, her mother and one other adult was crossing Drowning Creek on a bridge when the vehicle was swept into the creek, according to Wallace Taylor, judge-executive for Estill County.

The two adults - Victoria Yarber, 38, of Ravenna, and Fred Healy, 76 - were able to escape to land. Rescue teams from Estill, Madison and Powell counties searched for the child until nightfall Saturday, said Billy Hicks, search and rescue coordinator for Madison County Emergency Management Agency.

Today's forecast calls for a chance of afternoon storms with highs in the low 80s.

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E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com and jsteele@enquirer.com. The Associated Press contributed.