PENSACOLA, Fla., May 1 (UPI) -- Pensacola struggled Thursday with collapsed roads and flooded buildings in the aftermath of a record-breaking storm that drenched the Florida Panhandle.
Parts of the area got as much as two feet of rain in the storm that began Tuesday and lasted into Wednesday. While bad weather was in the forecast, meteorologists did not predict that the rain would be the heaviest in 130 years or so of records.
Some residents were still in nightclothes when they were evacuated.
"I lost everything," one tearful woman told the Pensacola Journal News as she watched other residents of the Forest Creek Apartments being pulled from the complex. "I just don't want to talk about it. I just don't."
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At least one death has been blamed on the storm. The Florida Highway Patrol said that Betty Faye Word, 67, drowned after being trapped by rising water in her Mercedes.
Part of Scenic Highway, a popular road along Escambia Bay, was damaged.
Investigators were trying to determine if an explosion that killed at least two inmates at the partly flooded Escambia County Jail late Wednesday was related to the weather. Three inmates were missing Thursday and scores of prisoners and staff injured.
Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 26 counties in the Panhandle on Wednesday. Officials were waiting to see if the area would get a federal disaster declaration.
The storm, part of a weather system that also brought deadly tornadoes to the South this week, caused flooding in much of the eastern United States.
A retaining wall in Baltimore collapsed because of the heavy rain, burying a residential street under mud that caused the pavement to cave in.
In Chickasaw, Ala., the opening of a kayak paddle trail in Chickasabogue Park was postponed. The ceremony was scheduled for Thursday, but officials said the entire area was under water.
