Steady, relentless downpours Monday dumped more than 5 inches of rain in parts of the Lehigh Valley and more than 6 inches in Berks County.

Hatfield borough in Montgomery County got 10 inches, and Lehigh Valley International Airport measured the most rainfall ever for July 12.

The storm caused flooding that closed streets and intersections, swamped basements, contributed to traffic accidents and had Allentown firefighters ''running crazy'' for water emergencies.

Two people escaped from a car as high water pulled it off the road near Route 100 and Ruppsville Road in Upper Macungie Township, said Trexlertown Fire Chief Mark Hahn.

''The current was so strong that it started sucking the car off the road,'' Hahn said. ''The water must have been chest-high there.''

The car ended up submerged, with only the color of the roof visible through the water, the chief said. A tow truck pulled it back onto the road.

Flooding closed many roads. The state Department of Transportation closed 25th Street on the Wilson-Palmer Township line between Lehigh Drive and Freemansburg Avenue. It will remain closed until the water subsides, said PennDOT spokesman Ron Young.

A portion of E. Market Street in Bethlehem also was shut down, and other problems in the city included falling wires and trees. One tree fell onto a car on W. Ettwein Street.

In Allentown, Cedar Creek spilled over its banks, closing St. Elmo Street between Martin Luther King Drive and Union Street, said Public Works Director Neal Kern. Flooding also shut down S. Eighth Street where it becomes Mack Boulevard.

In addition, a water main break added to already high water on Old Bethlehem Pike near Old Saucon Valley Road in Upper Saucon Township, said Cpl. Roger Miller of township police. The road was to be reopened about 6 a.m. today.

Though the rain subsided in Allentown by about 6 p.m., the National Weather Service predicted a chance of scattered thunderstorms through Thursday night.

The weather service issued a flash flood watch Monday for much of the Lehigh Valley. A flash flood warning was in place for several hours in Berks County, where 6 inches of rain had been recorded by 4 p.m.

By Monday night, rainfall totaled nearly 5.45 inches in Bethlehem and 3.35 inches at LVIA, said Walt Nickelsberg, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

The previous record for rainfall on July 12 at the airport was 1.95 inches in 1992, according to the weather service. The all-time recorded high at LVIA for one day was 7.85 inches in September 1985, when Hurricane Gloria blew through the area.

Flooding was heavy in the Philadelphia region, Nickelsberg said. Rainfall in the city totaled about 4.7 inches, also breaking a daily record.

The downpour meant back-to-back calls for Allentown's firefighters, who also had several small kitchen fires to put out in between, fire Capt. David Xander said.

''We had many, many, many calls,'' he said. ''Everything from water coming into basements, through leaky roofs and into electrical outlets. We've had transformers blown and wires down. We've just been running crazy because of this rain.''

Bethlehem firefighters responded to a call at the The Edge restaurant on W. Broad Street, where diners were forced out for 10 minutes in the afternoon as fire crews worked on a sparking wire, which fire officials said the storm might have caused.

The storm kept workers busy all day cleaning grates and storm drains and dealing with manhole lids that popped off, Allentown's Kern said. The drenching rain also led to several crashes, including one involving a dump truck and a sport utility vehicle on Interstate 78 westbound in Allentown. Both vehicles overturned, trapping the uninjured drivers until emergency crews arrived.

This summer has been drier than average so far, with the National Weather Service recording 3.52 inches of precipitation in Allentown since June 1, about 2 inches shy of the usual mark.

Before Monday, the rainfall total for the area was more than 5 inches short of the yearly average to the date.

But with more wet weather expected, Young advised motorists to choose alternate routes when they see deep water, even if the roads are still open.

''If that means waiting until there's not traffic coming the other way, they may have to do that,'' he said.