TORRENTIAL rain brought the Riverina to a standstill on Saturday, with motorists battling flood water and a host of big events forced to make a sudden cancellation.The region's most important athletics event, the Temora Gift, was cancelled shortly before runners were due to take to their lanes for the semi-finals of the sprint event.A fierce storm held off until the heats of the Gift had been completed, but heavy rain hit Temora shortly before 6.30pm, forcing organisers to pull the pin on the finals series leaving the $10,000 purse unclaimed.Organisers of the Wagga Haiti Relief Concert were yesterday frustrated to see the sun shining after cancelling the event late on Saturday afternoon.Wagga's combined Rotary Clubs had banded together to host the Haiti appeal concert to raise funds for the country ravaged by the devastating earthquake last month."Isn't it always the way, the forecast was for more rain and today (yesterday) the sun is shining," said John Egan of Wollundry Rotary."We just couldn't take the chance and it was just going to be too wet and muddy underfoot."It's just such a shame, we'd organised this to help the people suffering in Haiti and now we have had to cancel it."Hopefully we will be able to hold it again in a couple of weeks."Along with the Temora Gift and the Haiti Relief Concert, the Tumbarumba Cup meeting and a number of the region's local sporting events were cancelled.Wagga resident Miles Connell was one of the victims of the downpour that hit the city's CBD on Saturday, with the sudden storm potentially costing him his beloved 1995 Mercedes.Mr Connell was forced to call in the services of a tow-truck on Saturday after his car, parked in Morgan Street, became almost half submerged in the rain."We had parked in Morgan Street opposite Woolworths, and after we had done the grocery shopping we came back and the car was half underwater," he said."There was 20cm of water in the back ofthe car and in the boot after it was dragged out, and it looks like if the water made its way into the engine than the car will be a write-off."I rang council's after-hours line, but basically they told me it wasn't their problem and to ring NRMA."I am going to talk to council (today) because it looks like a failure in the drainage system which caused all the water to build up with nowhere to go."They will say it was an act of God, but why did all the water stay there?"Mr Connell said if the car is not a write-off he is facing a potentially hefty $5000 to $7000 bill for the damage caused by the rain.