DeSantis Declares Flood Emergency in 7 Counties as Record Rain Swamps Brevard, Treasure Coast and Okeechobee; 60+ Rescued

Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency in seven Florida counties after a multi-day deluge flooded neighborhoods from Brevard County to the Treasure Coast and Lake Okeechobee, stranding drivers, swamping homes and forcing more than 60 rescues by state wildlife officers in Brevard County alone. Executive Order 26-227, signed Monday, Nov. 2, covers Brevard, DeSoto, Hardee, Highlands, Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties, and it arrived less than a day before Floridians went to the polls on Tuesday.

According to the order, a broad area of low pressure brought widespread heavy rain across parts of Florida from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2. Some communities picked up a foot or two of rain in less than a day, rainfall that local officials and meteorologists described as a 1-in-200-year or even 1-in-1,000-year event depending on the location.

What the emergency order does

The governor's office said the flooding has affected, and could continue to affect, critical infrastructure including state and county roads, major interstates, airports and schools. The order puts the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management in charge of the state response, including rescue, evacuation and recovery operations, and allows the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard to be activated as needed.

The declaration also lets the Florida Department of Transportation close roads, manage traffic and waive tolls when needed for emergency assistance or evacuations. Local governments may skip certain procurement and public works procedures to speed up their response. Pharmacists in the covered counties may dispense emergency 30-day refills of maintenance medications, and the state's price-gouging protections now apply to essential goods and services in all seven counties.

Because the general election fell the next day, the order includes a provision for county supervisors of elections who cannot fully meet state polling-place requirements. Those supervisors must notify the Florida Department of State of any partial or substitute measures, which need approval from the secretary of state. The order took effect immediately and runs for 60 days unless extended.

Brevard County: "borderline historic" rain and dozens of rescues

Brevard County took the worst of the storm. County leaders called the rainfall "borderline historic," WKMG News 6 reported, with water rising so fast that stormwater systems could not keep up. News 6 meteorologist Jordan Patrick said parts of Central Florida received around 2 feet of rain in 24 hours, which he called a 1-in-1,000-year flood event. WLRN reported that more than 26 inches fell near Melbourne in 24 hours as rain bands kept training over the same neighborhoods.

"It's so much water in such a short amount of time that our stormwater, regardless of how robust it could be, it just can't move that amount of water," John Scott, the county's emergency management director, told News 6.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said its officers completed more than 60 rescues in Brevard County on Monday, working in Melbourne and Palm Bay with helicopters, reconnaissance drones, airboats and shallow-water vessels to evacuate people and pets. In one case, FWC aviation crews pulled a man from Crane Creek after he was found clinging to a palm tree. Separately, Brevard Emergency Management spokesperson Don Walker told Florida Today that sheriff's deputies helped more than 100 people caught in rising water while driving, and airboats pulled at least seven residents from homes in the Wingate subdivision in West Melbourne.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey said crews brought in larger, higher-clearance vehicles to reach areas where normal traffic could not pass, and warned that saturated ground was toppling trees that could bring down power lines. In Palm Bay, a stretch of Fallon Boulevard became especially dangerous after a driveway and part of the roadway collapsed, according to FOX 35. One Palm Bay mother told News 6 she called 911 three times while trapped on her kitchen counter with her son and three dogs before neighbors on a paddleboard and a kayak reached them.

The American Red Cross opened an evacuation shelter at Parker Memorial Missionary Baptist Church, 4101 Melvin Chatman Way in Cocoa. As of Monday night it was the only evacuation shelter open in the county, with cots for 26 people, and 17 residents had arrived on two buses, WFTV reported. The church said its buses were ready to take shelter residents to their polling places on Tuesday.

Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County

Indian River and St. Lucie counties declared local states of emergency Monday afternoon. Indian River County Administrator John A. Titkanich Jr. said numerous roads had become impassable, and the county opened a pet-friendly shelter at Osceola Magnet School in Vero Beach. St. Lucie County's emergency operations center moved to a Level 2 partial activation, and the City of Port St. Lucie declared its own emergency, with the City Council set to formally approve it Tuesday afternoon.

In Port St. Lucie, knee-deep water covered parts of Southwest Airoso Boulevard and stalled cars, and police said officers were answering a significant number of calls about vehicles stranded in floodwater. The Florida Department of Health in St. Lucie County warned residents to avoid contact with floodwater and to use bottled or boiled water if a private well may have flooded.

Farther south, the City of Palm Beach Gardens said more than 15 inches of rain fell in parts of Palm Beach Gardens, Riviera Beach and The Acreage over roughly 12 hours. City officials said that exceeds the 13-inch threshold for a 1-in-100-year event under NOAA Atlas 14 data and approaches a 1-in-200-year event. Neighborhoods including Steeplechase, Horseshoe Acres and PGA National had 12 to 15 inches of standing water in places.

The City of Riviera Beach declared a state of emergency as water swamped the Lone Pine community, where WPTV found residents carrying belongings out in trash bags and on rafts and one person paddling a kayak down a street. Luz Ortiz, who has lived there 21 years, told WPTV she had never seen flooding like it.

Okeechobee County

Okeechobee County declared a local emergency on Sunday afternoon. Justin Hazellief, the county's public safety director and fire chief, told WPTV the area experienced a 1-in-200-year rainfall event, with about 9 to 10 inches of rain falling in six hours on Sunday, and that the southwest part of the county was hit hardest. Parts of the Seminole Cove community were completely underwater.

"This is by far in my 25 years this is the worst that I've seen," Hazellief said. He said pumps were running and the locks at Taylor Creek were open to bring water levels down. The county opened a general and special-needs shelter at Seminole Elementary School and offered sandbags at the county road department.

Schools, trains and wastewater

Several school districts canceled classes as floodwater cut off campuses and bus stops. The closures confirmed by districts and local stations as of Monday night:

Brightline suspended train service between Orlando and West Palm Beach because of high water along its rail corridor in Brevard County, and said service would not resume before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Trains between West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura and Miami were running normally. Brightline said crews working with Florida East Coast Railway will inspect tracks, signals and crossings once the water recedes.

The rain also overwhelmed wastewater systems. Titusville began releasing treated reclaimed water into the Indian River Lagoon around 6:30 a.m. Monday near its Osprey Water Reclamation Facility after flows reached full capacity, WFTV reported. The city said the water was filtered and disinfected and was not raw sewage, and that it was notifying the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and running required water-quality tests. Titusville and Cocoa Beach both asked customers to limit laundry, dishwashing and long showers to keep sewage from backing up into homes and streets.

Forecast: drying out, with a front late in the week

Forecasters say the worst is over. The upper-level disturbance that fueled Monday's extreme rain is weakening, according to WKMG, though scattered showers and storms remain possible Tuesday and Wednesday, and the station said coastal Brevard County faced a marginal, level 1 of 4, risk of excessive rainfall on Tuesday. Because the ground is saturated, any additional downpour could renew flooding. Drier air is expected Thursday, followed by a mostly dry cold front late Thursday into Friday that should bring cooler weekend temperatures.

The National Hurricane Center is also watching an area of low pressure expected to form a few hundred miles northeast of the Bahamas. WPTV reported the NHC gave it a 20% chance of subtropical development near Bermuda before the weekend, and it is moving away from the United States, posing no threat to Florida.

What's next

County leaders in Brevard said they would begin assessing damage, including possible damage to roadbeds hidden beneath standing water, once the rain moved out. Officials across the affected counties continued to urge residents to stay off flooded roads, noting that standing water can linger for days after the rain ends. Residents who need help can contact their county emergency management office, and voters in flooded areas should confirm their polling place with their county supervisor of elections before heading out.