Tropical Storm Fay floods hundreds of Florida homes

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Hundreds of central Florida homes flooded Wednesday as Tropical Storm Fay drenched the state for a third consecutive day, and forecasters warned the waters could worsen because the storm had stubbornly stalled.

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.

"In some areas, it's waist-deep," said Erick Gill, a spokesman for St. Lucie County, which is south of Melbourne. "We've had reports of people having 3 to 5 feet of water in their home."

Gill said hundreds of homes had been flooded, though a count was incomplete. Homes also were flooded in Brevard County, said Bob Lay, the county's emergency operations director. Floodwaters also had caused sewage to back up, affecting another 40,000 to 50,000 people in three towns.

The Florida National Guard mobilized about a dozen guardsmen and some high-water vehicles to assist with damage assesment and help evacuate people trapped in homes, said Jon Myatt, spokesman for the Florida Department of Military Affairs.

Forecasters had originally expected Fay to energize over the ocean and possibly become a hurricane. But the storm's center remained just inland early Wednesday and forecasters said it might not go over the water until the afternoon.

Yvonne Martinez, spokeswoman for the city of Palm Bay, said 2 to 3 feet of water rendered many roadways impassable. "From what I've seen, some people won't be able to get out of their houses until the water recedes," she said.

The storm remained near Cape Canaveral at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, not having moved much in several hours. Its maximum sustained winds were back up to about 50 mph and it was expected to resume slowly moving north later Wednesday.

Steve Letro, chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Jacksonville, said Wednesday parts of northern Florida could get 10 to 15 inches of rain, while southern Georgia could receive 3 to 6 inches.

Bands from Fay, meanwhile, brought intermittent rains to Georgia's 100-mile coastline Wednesday from St. Marys at the Florida state line to Savannah.

Robyn Butler, 45, and her husband fled their 32-foot camper in Vero Beach, Fla., after it flooded. They got a hotel room inland in Sebastian, but planned to leave it Wednesday and return home because storm water was also pooling there. The toilets were backing up, Butler said, and wouldn't flush.

"(My husband is) from Kansas and he gets all bug-eyed when he hears tornadoes," Butler said. "So we decided to evacuate."