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 Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 26
counties inundated by as much as two feet of relentless rain over a
24-hour period, as severe thunderstorms raced across the northern
part of the state.
Emergency workers evacuated about 200 people in the Panhandle, Scott
told reporters at an emergency operations center south of
Tallahassee.
"This is devastating to this part of the state," he told CNN.
"No-one anticipated it would just keep on raining and raining and
raining ... We thought it was going to move on out."
Ashton Hayward, the mayor of Pensacola, Florida, said some downtown
areas of the Gulf Coast city, were up to four feet under water. On
one block, all of the businesses were flooded, he said.
"One of my co-workers who lives nearby didn't see water coming into
the house, and he turned around and he had rooms with stuff floating
in them," said Adam Jones, 28, a Pensacola home theater technician.
"The ground was so saturated ... it came right from under him."
A portion of the Scenic Highway in Pensacola, which runs along a
bluff 80 to 100-feet above sea level, collapsed in two places,
causing a car and truck to fall about 40 feet, Hayward said. No
injuries were reported.
An elderly woman died late Tuesday in Escambia County after high
waters submerged her car on a highway, the Florida Highway Patrol
said.
In Gulf Breeze, located on a spit of land on Pensacola Bay, rescue
crews evacuated 150 people from a 2-story apartment complex in six
boats operated by Florida Fish and Wildlife officials. The rear of
the complex was under five feet of water and ground floor units were
flooded, one of the rescuers said.
"All accesses were flooded. People were panicky. They were afraid
they were going to be cut off," said Fish and Wildlife spokesman
Stan Kirkland.
Bill Pearson, Escambia County public information officer, said
emergency management received several reports of people being swept
from their cars and those cases remain "unresolved."
Along Alabama's Gulf Coast, major county roads were flooded and
several rivers overflowed after some areas got between 22 and 26
inches of rain in 24 hours, according to Mitchell Sims, emergency
management director for Baldwin County.
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"We were rescuing people out of cars, out of ditches, out of homes,"
Sims said. "We are still getting reports of people trapped."
The flooding appears to be the worst in 30 years in the Panhandle,
according to initial radar images of the rainfall, said Eric
Esbensen, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Schools and roads were closed in several Panhandle counties
including Escambia. State and county officials urged residents not
to drive in the treacherous conditions of rising water, damaged
roads and storm debris.
Severe conditions may persist into Thursday, though "the weather may
be quieting down as warmer, more humid air is pushed offshore by a
cold front moving through the Appalachians," said National Weather
Service meteorologist Corey Mead.
There have been 27 confirmed weather-related deaths and more than
200 people reported injured across Arkansas and Mississippi, as
tornadoes reduced homes to rubble, shredded trees and launched
vehicles into the air.
Deaths have also been reported in Oklahoma, Iowa, Alabama and
Tennessee.
President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in Arkansas and
ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts,
the White House said.
Shelters have been set up for thousands of families forced out of
their homes. More than 2,000 houses and 100 commercial properties
have been reported damaged.
(Additional reporting by Barbara Liston in Orlando, Curtis Skinner
in New York, Verna Gates in Birmingham, Zachary Fagenson in Miami;
writing by Colleen Jenkins and David Adams; editing by Gunna
Dickson)
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