Governor declares state of emergency for Brevard flooding

I was going to die. A 1,000 year flood hitting Brevard County hard. Some people had to be rescued from their homes and cars As streets and neighborhoods turned into rivers. We want to show you the latest rain totals at this hour. A whopping 22 inches has fallen in Malabar over the last 28 hours. Melbourne setting a record today for the most rain ever in any single day. And breaking tonight, all Brevard County public schools will be closed again tomorrow as a precaution and as they all try to dry off. This is the result of all that rain, of course. Part of a road in Palm Bay washed away this afternoon and new video showing the Water pouring into the collapsed area. It's near Port Malabar and Vance Circle going east near U.S. 1. What a wet day it's been. Brevard County is now under a state of emergency tonight because of an executive order from the governor. Welcome in at 6, I'm Jack Royer. Thanks for joining us. I'm Luanne Sorrell. Officials are telling people to shelter in place for their own safety. We have live team coverage tonight all across Brevard County. We want to start with meteorologist Laurel Blanchard who is live in Melbourne. So Laurel, you've been out there for... For quite a few hours now, is the water there starting to recede? A little bit really we haven't seen too much really what this water has been doing has just been sitting here and in some areas that water has gotten pretty deep and now that it's dark outside really before I couldn't even see my boots through the murky water and now that it's dark I can't even really tell exactly how deep the water is. So walk with me real quick. I was standing in about water that was about shin high and just stepping off to the side just a little bit. This water almost goes up even a little bit higher so this water is really unpredictable about where we are seeing those shallow versus deep areas and that just really goes to what we're seeing within the traffic right now. You can see that it is really just so tough to tell how deep this water is and what we've been seeing with the traffic pattern so far is people coming in realizing that the water might be too deep and then turning around so this traffic has really been Building up. But a lot of these people are just trying to get home. And now that it's so dark outside, it is really just so tough to tell what is in the water. And we talked to a couple of residents concerned about the water earlier on today. Honestly, I don't know what's in the water. I'm actually very scared. Truly walking through it. I'm like, what? I don't know what's going to touch me. I just seen a dead rat walking back. So I'm like, I don't know what's in this water. I'm scared. But other than that, just trying to get back home. I don't know. and that's what a lot of folks are just trying to do tonight whether they're coming home from work whether they've just run out to do a couple of errands this water looks like a lot of roads here in across Melbourne right now we're in the intersection between Sarno and Wickham Road and you can just see the water coming up after every vehicle passes through there are wakes that quite literally make the sidewalks look like beaches and debris from not only cars, the water ripping off the bottom of cars Coming through this area, but also just seeing the water, you can see, get really rough as it kind of works its way from the road into areas and parking lots. And just look directly across from me. Most areas, especially backyards and people within this Melbourne area, their driveways, their backyards look like ponds. And even parking lots directly across the way quite literally look like pools. The Del Taco across the street, their parking lot is completely full. Flooded, so this entire area is pretty much underwater and we're most likely going to continue to see this water just sit here as we're not really seeing any of the drains completely clear. So very, very slow drainage is expected, especially in Melbourne as we head through the rest of the overnight tonight. Now that it's officially stopped raining, we could still see another shower or two roll through, but overall this water most likely will be here for quite a while. So if you do see a road that looks exactly like this, Do not drive through it, turn around, or if you're walking, do not walk through this water. Again, we don't know what is in this water, and you don't want to get cut, or you don't want to get hurt either. Live in Melbourne, meteorologist Laurel Blanchard, Fox 35 News. And as Laurel pointed out, this is the first weekday since we turned our clocks back an hour. It's dark an hour earlier, hard to see what's in that water, as Noah Berggren joins us now. Yeah, Noah, as the sun goes down, the floodwaters get very dangerous. How much rain have we seen? Yeah, Lou, and some places are over 20 inches of rain. And in fact, we're still getting in final totals. The final totals will be higher than this. But real quick, 22, as you saw in Malabar, about 20 in Melbourne Beach, 15 Titusville, the Melbourne International Airport, just over a foot in Vierra, about 9.8. All right. So the big danger right now, and I know so many of you are watching this in Brevard. And first of all, our hearts and our prayers are with those of you who have been impacted. I want to give you some ray of positivity. There's nothing more like earlier coming. The torrential rain, the deluge. That's over. We still have some showers that are going to continue through the evening, but none of this is going to add to the flooding. So the waters are going to come down from here, but it's going to be slow. And now that it's dark. This is the huge danger is that we've got all these roads with water on them at night. You really need to heed these warnings seriously around the Palm Bay and Melbourne areas. Let's take a little radar tour tonight. We have some steady light rain from Malabar down to Melbourne Shores. No lightning in this right now. I'm optimistic that this is going to move on here within the next hour or so. Now, the rain rates earlier were about 2 to 3 inches per hour this morning. Now it's about 0.3, so the rates of the rain from these showers is dramatically lower, so that's working in our favor. We've got some dry time now from the center of Melbourne up towards Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, and these showers you see there are working their way inland. Here's the future radar through the evening, and notice still by 8:30, this has just zoomed into Brevard County, still a couple showers through 8:00, 9:00, but by 10:00, most of Brevard. In terms of anything falling from the sky is going to be pretty much done. So we've just got to work through about the next two to three hours. There's still some lingering showers. The things are going to really temper down for the rain. I'll talk to you about the rest of the area, why this happened, and where we go from here coming up in just a few minutes, guys. All right, Noah, thank you. Well, from washed-out roads to water-filling homes, the Space Coast has emergency crews stretched very thin. Esther Bauer's been out in it all day. She's live now in Palm Bay at a fire station where, Esther, they're pulling out the airboats tonight, the high-water trucks, all of it. Jack, they are using whatever they can get their hands on. That includes boats from the FWC, and we have Palm Bay Police cruisers also here at Station 7. All of these first responders still responding to dozens and dozens of 911 calls for help. I've never seen this bad, period, all of the years I've been living here since 2004 on and off. I've never seen it as bad in Brevard County. I tried to walk out before, and I can't. The water is in my garage, close to my laundry room. And also out in the back. Homeowners trapped in West Melbourne. The river has merged with the road. There is no like divide anymore. And drivers stuck near the Indian River Lagoon. We're just at a big disadvantage right now, but we're doing our best. Palm Bay Fire Rescue asking everyone to shelter in place so their crews can get to people who need help. Massive road washouts and structure fires. It's not just heavy rain and flooding. Fire crews are fighting today. This wasn't a hurricane, but in some ways, Monday's flash floods were even worse for some on the Space Coast. Just to try to get through today and hopefully pray for this rain to slow down and stop eventually. And all the people that we've been speaking with say this system brings them back to 2008 and Tropical Storm Fay that dumped water on Brevard County for about seven days. But this all unfolding in 24 hours and most people saying they were not prepared for this storm. Reporting live in Palm Bay, Esther Bauer, Fox 35 News. And Esther, some people in Palm Bay are trapped inside their homes tonight. This shows water rising inside of a home's hallway. You can see it just pouring. In the crack right there and as a result of all the water boats and high water vehicles are out at this very hour rescuing people. Marie Edinger live right now in Palm Bay. So Marie, you just spoke to people who are in the process of being rescued. Yeah, and there are more throughout the night who are going to need it. The trouble the city is having is they just do not have the resources to be able to get to everyone who might need it. And that's just for people in their homes. There are many, many cars still stuck in the roads. For instance, there's one right behind me that you can see has just been abandoned in that parking lot after being deemed immovable. We did see another car just get towed out a few minutes ago. This is something that people are going to We'll be dealing with through the night and probably well in tomorrow. The city, as we mentioned, is trying to evacuate people as best it can. It has three high water vehicles, another two that it's borrowed from the state. It does have motor boats that they're going throughout the city to try to get to people who might need it. There are some roads that are completely inaccessible. They said Fairview, excuse me, Fairhaven and Palm Bay estates are still inaccessible. There are roads that have washed out and collapsed within neighborhoods, and there are people who cannot get out. They're trying to get people evacuated and brought to City Hall. That's their point for meetups. We talked with a bunch of people over there who were evacuated. They all thanked the city for their work. We did speak with a woman and her 99-year-old grandfather who had to be evacuated today. I believe we have that sound. We just sat there at the kitchen table while the water was rising up above our feet and then up above our ankles and then up to our knees. And like I said, we had to put him up on top of a counter in the kitchen because we called 911 and they said, you know, we don't have enough resources to help you. So... They said, we'll put you on the list, and my husband, about maybe an hour later, he saw the rescue boat. He always told us, I would never get in a boat, and I told him, today you did. Yeah. To save your life, you did. I did speak earlier with the mayor of Palm Bay who said he'd like to see some shelters opened. The people you just heard from are among those who would need them. They said that they do have friends who they could stay with, but the friends can't get to them because of how many roads are flooded out right now. And we are working to find out more about the status of those shelters and how much the county may be able to help. Live in Brevard County, Marie Attinger, Fox 35 News. Marie, thank you. And Brightline has now stopped train service between Orlando and West Palm Beach because of all the flooding. Brightline says maintenance teams are on the scene and train service will resume just as soon as it's safe. Right now, a precautionary boil water notice is in effect in parts of West Melbourne. A water main break there has prompted the warning for people south of U.S. 192 and east of Hollywood Boulevard. The city says any water used for cooking, drinking, Making or making ice, even brushing your teeth, all of it should be boiled before use. That notice remains in effect until water tests confirm it is safe to use.