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© James Woodcock/Billings Gazette A waterfall cascades off the rims east of North 27th Street Tuesday afternoon as heavy rains continue in Billings.
Heavy rain in Billings on Tuesday night covered streets around town with deep water and caused large boulders to fall from the Rimrocks onto Zimmerman Trail.

Zimmerman Trail is closed and water is pouring off the Rims in waterfalls.

Yellowstone County Sheriff's deputies and Montana Highway Patrol troopers closed down the intersection at First Avenue North and Main Street after the street flooded with more than a foot of water, which spilled up over the sidewalks.

Highway 87 North at Exposition Drive is closed.

All over the area east of downtown, cars stalled in the deep water, especially on Main and Fourth and Sixth avenues north, where manhole covers blew off because of the deluge. Fourth Avenue North is closed at North 24th Street.

The Sixth Street Underpass east of downtown has also flooded and should be avoided. At least one car has stalled there.

On the North Side, neighbors William Barber and Aaron Snyder nervously watched the the BBWA Canal, which runs behind their homes on the 1600 block of Vuecrest Drive.

At about 4 p.m., a mudslide hit their backyards after the ditch banks became too saturated from the heavy rains and a small section broke off.

"It just gave way," Snyder said. "I saw it starting to move and it just came down."

As of 6:30 p.m., no water or mud had made it into their homes and they were trying to divert running water out of their yards. Behind Barber's home, a 40-foot-long crack could be seen forming in the banks.

He said it'd likely come down at some point in the evening.

"It's ready to go," Barber said. "It's just so saturated up there that it can't take any more water on."

In Lockwood, officials closed, reopened and then closed again the area around the intersection of Highway 87 East and Johnson Lane because of two feet of standing water.