This week’s flooding has made life difficult for more than just rural communities along rivers.

The South Sound’s urban areas also got their share of flood-related headaches, from water over roadways to clogged stormwater drainage systems to impromptu lakes.

Susan Rothwell, owner of Galloping Gertie’s restaurant in Lakewood, said runoff from nearby roads played havoc with her business.

A lake formed in her parking lot by noon Thursday. It has shown its face after other rainstorms, and patrons dub it “Lake Gertie.”

“Whenever you have an unusual high amount of rain, it happens,” Rothwell said. “It’s kind of become a joke here.”

In Tacoma, the city shut down sections of 10 streets Wednesday, although many of them were reopened Thursday.

The reasons for the closures varied, according to the city. Two landslides were reported on Schuster Parkway. Businesses and apartments saw flooding on South Hosmer near 96th Street. Portions of Ruston Way and McKinley Avenue also were closed.

City spokeswoman Lorna Sutton cataloged affected areas in an e-mail to The News Tribune on Thursday:

 • Marine View Drive was closed between McMurray Road and Browns Point Boulevard because of slides. It could open by today .

 • The 4600-4900 block of Waterview Street, also known as Ferdinand Hill, was closed by mudslides and isn’t scheduled to open until the middle of next week.

 • The Titlow Pump Station was sending overflow stormwater into the Narrows.

The city also reported that members of its Fire Department helped evacuate eight homes Wednesday in the Leach Creek drainage area, near the Fircrest-Tacoma border.

On Thursday, crews shut down the Lincoln Avenue Bridge while they removed debris from the Puyallup River that backed up on the base of the bridge.

Local public works crews weren’t the only ones busy. Businesses that clean flooded homes – such as Premier Emergency Water Removal in Auburn – were also swamped. The company serves residents from Tacoma to Bellevue.

Dawn-Marie Crowe, Premier’s flood manager, said her company has received three times the number of calls it normally would.

To keep up with the demand, the company bought a machine Wednesday that sucks up water quicker and more efficiently than the company’s truck-mounted machine.

Most of the calls have been from people with flooded basements, she said.

“Very, very busy,” Crowe said of the storm Thursday. “We worked all through the night last night. Everybody’s dealing with 1 to 4 inches of water.”

Some cities fared better than others.

Although the people at Galloping Gertie’s complained of flooding, Lakewood didn’t experience major problems. City spokesman Jeff Brewster said the only problem spots were the Lake Louise and Harry Todd Park areas.

Steilacoom Town Administrator Paul Loveless said his town also avoided major flooding, although he was worried about the sand the city poured on streets during last week’s snowstorm getting in storm drains.

In University Place, the city had to close only one road – Morrison Road West – because of flooding in the Adriana Hess Park area.

The city’s major creeks – including Chambers and Leach – are at capacity, but none have overflowed.

Public Works Director Gary Cooper chalked up the city’s relative success to last summer, when it dispatched a work crew to clean the city’s entire stormwater drainage system, including 3,600 catch basins and manholes.

“In midsummer, you don’t notice it,” Cooper said. “But it’s paid off in the last 24 hours.”

Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653