Flood Florida and Alabama

HEAVY RAINS & SIGNIFICANT FLASH FLOODS DELUGE FLORIDA AND ALABAMA - THE SECOND WETTEST DAY ON RECORD IN PENSACOLA, SINCE 1934!

A relentless stream of tropical moisture has brought significant flash flooding to Pensacola, Florida this morning and afternoon.  Since midnight, Pensacola Regional Airport has picked up 13.10 inches of rainfall through 6:00 P.M. EST. This number will continue to increase the remainder of the day as heavy rain continues to track onshore from the Gulf of Mexico. 

  

The 12.99 inches is now the second wettest day on record next to October 5th, 1934 when 15.29 inches of rain fell.  Meanwhile, the Pensacola Naval Air Station has picked up 12.71 inches of rain just since midnight.  Flooding has been reported across Pensacola with numerous roads flooded and impassable.  Homes and businesses throughout downtown Pensacola are flooded, especially in the Palafox area of the city.  Reports are coming out that water has entered the first floor of a Baptist Hospital.  Rainfall rates of greater than 2 inches per hour continue to fall throughout the Gulf Coast region and there have been reports of greater than 18 inches of rain so far today in an area just north of Interstate 10 between Dawes and St. Elmo, Alabama in Mobile County. A failed dam on a 14-acre private lake near Dawes, Ala. has displaced many people from their homes.  A state of emergency is now in effect for Escambia County, Florida which is the county that houses Pensacola and vicinity. - Accu Weather.

A storm moving across the U.S. Gulf Coast battered parts of Alabama and Florida with up to 18 inches (4 6 cm) of rain on Saturday with authorities in Pensacola, Florida, declaring a state of emergency and sending out boats to rescue residents of flooded homes.  The heavy rains in the region began on Friday night. The storm is due to winds picking up tropical moisture and streaming it from New Orleans in the Gulf Coast to Jacksonville on Florida's eastern coast.  Mobile, Alabama, saw 15 inches (38 cm) of rain that stranded people in cars and caused a dam to break on a private lake, officials said.  Pensacola and Mobile, which are less than 60 miles (97 km) a part, have been the worst-hit areas, said Mike Pigott, senior meteorologist with private firm Accuweather.com. Those have "kind of been two bull's eyes to be honest with you," he said.  The two cities are along the Gulf Coast's Interstate-10 

Source