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Aug 21, 2008 12:03 am US/Eastern
Thousands In Port St. Lucie Stranded By Flooding
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS4) ―
Even though most of South Florida got by unscathed, Tropical Storm Fay is causing big flooding problems for several areas north of West Palm Beach.
The storm dumped 10 inches of rain in 24 hours in Port St. Lucie. Eight thousand residents have been stranded in their homes because flood waters turned roads into rivers. Standing water is up to the front doors in some neighborhoods.
"We were prepared for the storm but never expected anything like this," Port St. Lucie Police spokesman Robert Vega said Wednesday.
The city is now transporting residents to and from their homes using a large school bus.
Earla Mayes had to use a city public works truck to transport her 88 year old mother who just got out of a nursing home.
"I'm not in a flood zone. I don't have flood insurance. This is odd," Mayes told CBS 4 News Reporter Joan Murray.
On Day Three of Tropical Storm Fay's slow, wet march across the state, emergency crews launched airboats into submerged streets, some trapped residents were rescued from homes, and the midway point on Florida's Atlantic coast turned into a swampy mess.
Calling the flooding "catastrophic," Gov. Charlie Crist requested an emergency disaster declaration from the federal government to defray rising debris and response costs. The White House said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was reviewing the request.
Authorities worried the murky brown waters that overflowed from canals would grow deeper as stop-and-go rains flowed from dismal, gray skies.
While there have been reports of flooded homes and rescues in counties up and down the coast, for many the storm was just a major inconvenience.
John DeMatthews, 51, walked four miles from his home with a few friends to grab supplies at the grocery store. He hasn't been able to move his car out of his driveway since Monday.
"Just the necessities," DeMatthews said, as he slogged through knee-deep water in the street, a white plastic bag slung over his shoulder. "Mayonnaise, cigarettes and coffee."
As many residents simply waited for the waters to recede, others went to work Tuesday and later found they couldn't get back home. Some of them being shuttled on a Port St. Lucie police bus back to their houses.
"There's cars stranded all over," said Robert Vega, spokesman for the Port St. Lucie Police Department. "You can't tell what's a canal and what's a roadway out here. It's that bad."
Hundreds of homes were flooded in areas of Brevard and St. Lucie counties, some by up to 5 feet of standing water. In three towns, rising floodwaters backed up sewage systems, affecting up to 50,000 people, officials said.
It wasn't immediately clear how many residents were displaced or stranded, but authorities reported making dozens of rescues.
The storm could dump 30 inches of rain in some areas of Florida and the National Hurricane Center said up to 22 inches had already fallen near Melbourne, just south of Cape Canaveral on the state's central Atlantic coast.
Forecasters originally expected Fay to energize over the ocean and possibly become a hurricane before landing in Florida for a third time later this week. The erratic storm first struck Monday in the Florida Keys, then veered out to sea before traversing east across the state, briefly strengthening, then losing steam and stalling.
If Fay crosses into the Atlantic and strikes Florida again, as expected, it would be just the fourth storm in recorded history to hit the peninsula with tropical storm intensity three separate times. The most recent was Hurricane Donna in 1960, said Daniel Brown, hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.
In St. Lucie County an estimated 150 residents have been assisted in evacuating by boat or high-clearance vehicle, and water was 3 to 5 feet in some people's homes, Erick Gill, a county spokesman, said.
The Florida National Guard mobilized about a dozen guardsmen and some high-water vehicles to help with damage assessment and evacuations.
The storm was 30 miles north of Cape Canaveral at 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday. Its maximum sustained winds were about 50 mph and it was expected to resume slowly moving north later Wednesday at about 2 mph.
Fay formed over the weekend in the Atlantic and was blamed for 20 deaths in the Caribbean before hitting Florida's coast, where it fell short of predictions it could become a Category 1 hurricane.
Still, the heavy rains and wind made it dangerous at times.
Joe McMannis, 27, said he jumped into floodwaters to help three people in a submerged truck in Jensen Beach. McMannis said the driver accidentally drove into a retention pond, confusing it for a driveway.
"I didn't think it was going to be that deep," he said. "It pretty much came up to my ears and chin."
The rain was welcome in dry Florida and Georgia cropland, but could also hurt farmers' production. Forecasters predicted parts of northern Florida could get 10 to 15 inches of rain, while southern Georgia could receive 3 to 6 inches.
"They're probably areas of the state that found the rains very beneficial," said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
But McElroy said the rain could pool around and damage citrus trees and flood pastures and hay fields. He couldn't yet quantify damage.
Before moving east, the storm flooded streets in Naples, downed trees and cut power to some 95,000 homes and businesses. Tornadoes spawned by the storm damaged 51 homes in Brevard County, southeast of Orlando, including nine homes that were totaled. In the Keys, officials estimated 25,000 tourists evacuated.
In Florida communities north of the flooding and in southeast Georgia, storm preparations included canceling school, clearing storm drains and ditches and encouraging mobile home residents to find sturdier shelter.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
