Residents in one Raleigh neighborhood spent a lot of Wednesday assessing the damage from Tuesday's flash flooding.

Several apartments and cars were damaged when a creek at the Brook Hill Apartment complex on Dana Drive came out of its banks.

In one apartment, the water was a foot deep.

"Yesterday was a little disaster," said Precious Waters, whose apartment sustained a moderate amount of damage. "Well for some people, a big one."

Now some residents are trying to figure out how something like this could catch them by surprise.

"I come downstairs, I'm like half asleep and there's like a whole pool of water," said Jason Kim. "The whole first floor is just flooded."

Kim said everything he owns is ruined -- at least the stuff that was on the first floor -- but he's piled it up waiting for an insurance adjuster to assess the damage.

"I'm thinking I'm pretty lucky about all this," said Kim. "Other families, their insurance is not going to cover it at all."

And that's what has a lot of people angry.

According to the manager of Raleigh's Stormwater Management Division this same creek flooded in 1996, 1997, 2003 and 2006; in those last two events, the property owners filed federal claims.

Residents say they are required to have rental insurance, but were never warned that the area was susceptible to floods, so many of them don't have protection from flooding.

"If you let me know, I can prepare," said Waters.

A woman at Brook Hill's leasing office said she can't comment on the situation.

People like Kim say they never would have moved in if they knew this might be an issue.

"It's like a nice little stream, you know. When you first move in it doesn't seem deadly," said Kim.

Brook Hill has put Kim up in a hotel for the time being, and the Red Cross is helping him and other victims out as well.

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