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Southeast Florida swamped by floods



STUART, Florida (CNN) -- Rising water and heavy rain soaked southeastern Florida on Thursday and Friday, flooding scores of homes and prompting one county to declare a state of emergency.

More than 8 inches of rain fell in a 10-hour period Thursday in Martin County, according to Keith Holman, director of the county's emergency management agency. When streets and homes began filling with water, he said, the county declared a state of emergency.

"It wasn't so much a flash flood as it was a rise, a water rise," Holman said. "It did a lot of damage but [was] not necessarily life-threatening."

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Martin County officials had received no reports of injuries or deaths so far, he said.

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch Friday for central and southern Florida, "where drainage ditches are already at capacity and standing water remains from excessive rains," an NWS advisory said.

Various agencies, including state and local emergency management and the Red Cross, were conducting damage assessments on Friday, making sure uninsured residents get individual assistance.

Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said street flooding was the biggest problem, and the agency was advising residents to drive with caution.

"Many homes were impacted and shelters were opened," Fugate said. "In some of these neighborhoods, till the water goes down, people are not going to be able to get back in their homes and start making repairs."

About 40 people made use of a Red Cross shelter Thursday in Stuart, including a preschool class flooded out of its school.

Red Cross spokeswoman Mary Sawyer said preliminary information showed as many as 80 homes may have been flooded, adding the exact number will not be known until damage assessment teams finished their count.

"We know there are homes that have water in them -- some of them 12 inches or more," Sawyer said.

Major roadways, including Florida's Turnpike and Interstate 95, were open Friday, but many county roads were impassable due to standing water, Holman said.

Workers with the county health department were checking for water contamination because wells and septic tanks were flooded.

The National Weather Service said Tropical Storm Barry, moving over the Gulf of Mexico, would pull deep tropical moisture and heavy rain over the area as it moved to the northern Gulf coast on Friday and through the weekend.

More showers and thunderstorms are forecast through next week.






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