TS Fay forces evacuations to Central Florida

By Kevin Spear, Adrian G. Uribarri and Gary Taylor | Orlando Sentinel

5:48 AM EDT, August 25, 2008

All around Ray McDuffie, there was misery.

Standing outside his house in DeBary on relatively high ground, he looked out at his neighborhood and saw at least nine homes flooded by water that was several feet high. People cried, hugged and waded through the murky water clutching garbage pails filled with what little they could salvage.

"I hope this storm goes away, away," said McDuffie as lightning struck and rain sprinkled his lawn. "If this rain comes, we're done."

Emergency workers ordered evacuations for residents of at least 180 homes in DeBary on Sunday afternoon as water levels continued to rise because of rain from Tropical Storm Fay. Storms continued dumping rain into the evening, further aggravating already swollen waterways. As rain continued into Sunday night, those estimates were expected to rise.

That was a glimpse of the drama still unfolding along the St.Johns River, where record-flooding and persistent rains will cause waters to continue rising steadily near DeBary, DeLand and other communities for more than a week, forecasters warned.

Because of the storm's devastating rains, the Bush administration on Sunday declared Brevard, Monroe, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties eligible for recovery aid to government agencies and nonprofit groups. The funding has not yet been extended to individual homeowners whose properties were damaged by high winds or flood waters.

State and federal emergency officials are still assessing the damage. More counties could be added.

In low-lying areas of DeBary, several residents said they were told by their insurance companies that they did not need flood coverage. But as officials knocked on doors and told people to evacuate, it became clear they could have used it. "The city told us this is not a flood area," said Joseph Grimm.

A day after his house flooded, only the red mailbox flag poked out of his front yard. Grimm said he and his wife, Edith, swam out of their Alexandra Woods house on Saturday evening, carrying suitcases over their heads.

"It was a nervous-breakdown experience," she said. "I never saw something like this."

A stubbornly sluggish river, the St. Johns was pushing by communities in Seminole and Volusia counties -- engorged with 65,000 gallons per second, or 2½ times more than a week ago.

An enormous surge of water continues to drain out of wetlands and reservoirs from as near as Wekiwa Spring State Park and as far away as Indian River County. Because the St. Johns River moves at the speed of a slow walk, it will take days for those waters to combine in some places.

Add to that a forecast for Fay's remnants, now over Mississippi, to spread widely over the Southeast. That will keep much of Florida primed for heavy afternoon thundershowers.

"It's a double whammy," said Leroy Pearman, a 40-year veteran river expert and chief of the U.S. Geological Survey data network in Florida. Numbers from U.S. Geological Survey gauges reveal the St. Johns swollen like few times, if ever, in the record books.

In east Seminole County where the St. Johns River is no longer rising, waters are steadily setting new marks.

The Wekiva River, which feeds the St. Johns, remains at record flooding.

Portions of the Little Econlockhatchee River, which flows through Orange and Seminole counties, match a previous high mark set during the 2004 hurricanes. At midafternoon Sunday, Frank Evans was keeping a close eye on the water behind his manufactured home in the Palm Shadows community near Mullet Lake Park west of Geneva.

The water was already higher than it was during 2004 when three hurricanes hit the area, and he was expecting it to rise another 18 inches. He measures the flood by looking at how high his floating dock rises. A second, nonfloating dock, was completely submerged .

If the home where Evans has lived for 33 years gets flooded, he's prepared to cut off the electricity and move out.

For Betty McGraw, who lives on Lake Harney Circle east of Geneva, one of the biggest problems was getting in and out of the area because a portion of Rest Haven Road leading to E. State Road 46 was flooded.