U.S. & World News

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS News) ― Tropical Storm Fay lumbered offshore Thursday for what was likely to be a brief stay over the Atlantic Ocean's energizing waters after flooding hundreds of homes with torrential rain, trapping residents and leaving much of Florida a soggy mess.

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, Fay was located about 15 miles east-northeast of Daytona Beach, CBS station WFOR reported. Maximum wind strength remained near 60 mph. A gradual weakening is expected when Fay moves back over land.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center expect Fay to slowly move back over Florida sometime late Thursday. If it follows a west-northwest track, it move across the north Florida panhandle and be very near the Gulf Coast by early Saturday.

A Tropical Storm Warning remains in effect from Fort Pierce to the Savannah River at the border between Georgia and South Carolina. Over the next 36 hours, Fay is expected to dump 5 to 10 inches of rain on northern Florida; some areas could get as much as 15 inches of rain.

The storm flooded hundreds of homes in Brevard and St. Lucie counties on Florida's central Atlantic coast, some with up to 5 feet of water, forcing dozens of rescues. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was reviewing Gov. Charlie Crist's request for a federal emergency disaster declaration to defray rising debris and response costs.

"I want to stress that this storm is becoming a serious catastrophic flooding event," Crist said.

In Jacksonville, residents were told to expect the brunt of the storm later Thursday. With schools, government offices and many businesses closed, streets were quiet and traffic was light at what would normally be the start of rush hour.

John Place, at a local Wal-Mart, said he and his wife has been prepared for quite a while. "This is not a panic situation," he said. "If it was a Category 1, 2 or 3 (hurricane) making a direct hit on Jacksonville, you'd have something."

In some places early Thursday the water was starting to recede. Port St. Lucie resident Jason Thompson, 25, was out walking his dog before dawn along streets that had been passable only by airboat for the past couple of days.

"I couldn't drive the car anywhere. Every neighborhood was flooded," Thompson said. "I've been kind of going crazy in the house for all of this time, but at least the cable didn't go out."

Reporting from Melbourne, just south of Cape Canaveral, CBS' "The Early Show" weather anchor Dave Price said more than 24 inches of rain had hit the city, with up to 30 inches total likely by the end of Fay's run.

Residents tell Price the flooding there is "unprecedented."

"It's just been torrential downpours," Susan Hawk told Price.

Fay could dump 30 inches of rain in some areas of Florida and the National Weather Service said nearly 25 inches had already fallen near Melbourne, just south of Cape Canaveral.

The storm was just offshore of the Florida coast early Thursday but continued to dump heavy rain. At 5 a.m. EDT, the storm's center was located about 20 miles east-southeast of Daytona Beach. The storm had moved very little but was expected to begin slowly moving toward the west-northwest later in the day.

The storm's maximum sustained winds were near 60 mph. The National Hurricane Center said some strengthening was possible while the center was still over water. But the storm was expected to weaken after moving back over land.

The erratic storm first struck Monday in the Florida Keys, then veered out to sea before traversing east across the state, briefly strengthening, then stalling. For much of Wednesday, the storm barely moved, dumping inches and inches of rain over coastal central Florida.

If Fay strikes Florida again as expected, it would be just the fourth storm in recorded history to hit the peninsula with tropical storm intensity three separate times. The most recent was Hurricane Donna in 1960, said Daniel Brown, hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

Though no deaths have been reported in the state as a result of the storm, its effects have been significant.

Emergency crews launched airboats into submerged streets Wednesday to rescue Florida residents trapped by rising floodwaters. The Florida National Guard mobilized about a dozen guardsmen and some high-water vehicles to assist with damage assessment and help with evacuations.

In St. Lucie County alone, an estimated 150 residents were assisted in evacuating by boat or high-clearance vehicle, and water was 3 to 5 feet in some people's homes, Erick Gill, a county spokesman, said. Meanwhile, officials in Brevard County said 118 people were in shelters Wednesday night.

By the end of Wednesday, overall numbers of displaced residents and flooded homes weren't available.

"We can't even get out of our house," said Billie Dayton of Port St. Lucie, as waters lapped at her porch. "We're just hoping that it doesn't rain anymore."

Fay formed over the weekend in the Atlantic and was blamed for 20 deaths in the Caribbean before hitting Florida's southwest coast, where it first fell short of predictions it could be a Category 1 hurricane when it came ashore.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)