MADISON, Wis. -- People in parts of southern Wisconsin are still recovering from thunderstorms Thursday that produced downpours of rain and flash flooding and knocked out power to thousands of people in the Waukesha County area.

VIDEO: Watch The Report | SLIDESHOW: View Images Of Flooding In Madison

So many streets flooded in Madison and Waukesha that police asked motorists to stay away until conditions improved.

The storm in the Waukesha area included damaging winds that toppled trees and power lines.

We Energies crews were working through the night to restore power to thousands of people. As of Thursday night, there were 5,000 of the utility's customers with no electricity.

Storm Slams UW Campus

Some of the worst flooding occurred near the UW-Madison campus and Camp Randall, as well as near the Capitol downtown. Police said a boat capsized on Lake Mendota near the UW student union, but everyone aboard was rescued. Utility crews are picking up downed wires and tow trucks are moving cars stalled throughout the city.

Campus officials said they dispatched crews to 68 different locations to deal with leaky roofs, flooded buildings and parking structures.

Garland Gibson, a computer printing tech at the Humanities Copy Center, helped clean up the flooding Thursday and said he was shocked by the amount of water.

"(In one room), (water) was coming out of the electrical panel there, coming out the door, and the clock had a half-inch of water in it," Gibson said.

As lecture halls filled up with feet of water, worried students waiting for an exam left notes for a professor after being persuaded to leave.

"They were just surprised that they were told they couldn't have (the exam) here. There was water on the floor, an inch or two of water in the hallway," Gibson said.

Down the hall, music department members scrambled to save thousands of dollars in instruments, recording equipment and music, WISC-TV reported.

"(In one music room), the whole ceiling was raining down here on top of (a) piano," said Justin Richardson, facilities manager at the School of Music. "These two pianos normally live in this backstage area and this whole ceiling was dripping, so the first thing I did was come around to all the rooms that might have pianos and check them and make sure they weren't getting wet."

Some of the worst damage occurred up Bascom Hill at Radio Hall, where the floors were lined with a layer of mud after water flooded in from a construction site.

"I've not seen a flood like this or a rain like this in the time that I've been here. I've been on campus a little over 15 years," said John Harrod, director of the physical plant.

UW-Madison's Physical Plant Crisis Center took more than 380 calls for service and is now assessing all the damage.

"It was funny, in an aspect. You got to laugh at it, otherwise you'll go nuts," Gibson said.

UW-Madison had people working through the night on cleanup. The university said it won't have a full estimate of the damage until next week.

Vilas Hall, at the corner of University Avenue and Park Street, also had some flooding in the WHA Public Television Offices. But workers were able to get the water cleaned up quickly and no serious damage was reported.

Madison resident Emily Rogers, who wasn't home when the sudden rain struck, said she couldn't believe the flood damage to her basement apartment near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The storm left the apartment inundated by 4 feet of water. The UW-Madison junior lost a television and a printer to the water.

She called the storm both shocking and "very unreal."

The city evacuated the building where Rogers lived, which suffered heavy damage to basement apartments, and several others that also house mostly college students near campus.

No major safety issues were reported and campus remained open and will be open again on Friday.

The summer storms also caused some flash flooding in Madison's Monroe Street area Thursday.

Julie Brown and her daughter told WISC-TV they had just come back from swimming and found a flood in their neighborhood.

Brown said it is a problem area and has been under water before.

"I'm not exactly sure if it gets backed up from the lake down there ... because that whole street down there, lower Pickford was flooded as well," Brown said.

Brown's neighbor Kris Schlenker said she had never seen anything like Thursday's flooding.

She said the storm runoff ran up onto her lawn, rather than of traveling through a pipe 15 feet below ground.

The water came within a few feet of the house and her basement.

"Typically it works and today it didn't ... it was just too much water and I guess it came too fast," Schlenker said. "Ultimately, we didn't get hurt so I guess it still works ... it just wasn't quite as planned."

At University Avenue and Highland Drive, pizza delivery driver Leaf Satterstrom tried to make it through the flooding but didn't make it, WISC-TV reported.

"I couldn't see anything so I just tried to make it through and (the) car just died," he said.

In two or three minutes, Satterstrom said his car filled with water up to the seat.

Near Edgewood College it was lightning, not water, that sparked a problem.

A downed power line closed the road and stopped a Madison Metro bus for more than an hour, causing one UW-Madison student to miss her mid-term exam.

"No, I didn't expect anything to happen like this," said Jurate Lehmann, a UW-Madison student.

Madison's East Side Also Hit By Storm

City engineering said the intense storm left no major problems in its wake -- just lots of small ones.

Engineering field crews were kept on after the storm on overtime clear debris out of storm-water drains and do other work before any more rain hits.

Engineering officials said if the city gets another heavy downpour soon, the flooding will be even worse than what happened Thursday morning.

On East Washington Avenue, the low-lying road quickly filled up with water Thursday, stalling some cars and stopping construction.

City officials said lots of manhole covers were blown off, and even some chunks of pavement were uplifted during the torrential downpour.

The flooding was a common sight for resident of Sydney Street, off Sherman Avenue on the East Side.

"It came down really, really fast out of nowhere -- because we were in the kitchen and all the sudden, horizontal, and coming from everywhere," said Elizabeth Davis, a Sydney Street resident.

"The good thing it was a short duration, and while it did hit quick and cause a lot of problems, it was over quick and everything is back to normal," said Mike Dailey, of the city of Madison's engineering department.

WISC-TV reported that crews especially want to clear out storm-water inlets which are packed with all kinds of debris, because lake and river levels are higher and there is still water in the storm-water system.

Officials said it was designed for a 10-year flood event, and many areas of the city don't meet that standard, WISC-TV reported.

For the latest weather information, visit Channel 3000's Weather section.

Stay tuned to WISC-TV and Channel 3000 for continuing coverage.