Gulf Coast caught off guard by record rainfall

Roads were wiped out, vehicles trapped, and people forced to climb on rooftops as waters rose in the Florida Panhandle and in Alabama Wednesday. Pensacola Fla., saw its rainiest day ever, with 2 feet of rain falling in the span of 24 hours.

People were plucked off rooftops or climbed into their attics to get away from fast-rising waters when nearly 2 feet of rain fell on the Florida Panhandle and Alabama coast in the span of about 24 hours, the latest bout of severe weather that began with tornadoes in the Midwest.

In the Panhandle on Wednesday, roads were chewed up into pieces or wiped out entirely. A car and truck plummeted 25 feet when portions of a scenic highway collapsed. Cars were overturned and neighborhoods were inundated, making rescues difficult for hundreds of people who called for help when they were caught off guard by the single rainiest day ever recorded in Pensacola.

Boats and Humvees zigzagged through the flooded streets to help stranded residents. At the height of the storm, about 30,000 people were without power. One Florida woman died when she drove her car into high water, officials said.

In Alabama, Capt. David Spies of Fish River/Marlow Fire and Rescue said he was part of a team who found two women and a young boy trapped in the attic of a modular home.

Spies said they received the first call of help before midnight Tuesday but they couldn't find the group until about 8 a.m. Wednesday. By then, the water was 2 feet below the roof. A firefighter used an axe to punch a hole through the roof and free them.

There were at least 30 rescues in the Mobile area of Alabama. Florida appeared to be the hardest hit. Gov. Rick Scott said officials there received about 300 calls from stranded residents.

At the Pensacola airport, 15.55 inches rain fell on Tuesday before midnight — setting a record for the rainiest single day in the city.

Pensacola and nearby Mobile are two of the rainiest cities in the US, averaging more than five feet of rain in a year, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

The National Weather Service said forecasters issued flash flood warnings as early as Friday, yet many people were still caught unaware.

The widespread flooding was the latest wallop from a violent storm system that began in Arkansas and Oklahoma and worked its way South, killing 37 people along the way, including a 67-year-old driver in Florida.

In Gulf Shores, Alabama, where nearly 21 inches of rain fell over a day's time, the scene resembled the aftermath of a hurricane.

By Wednesday afternoon, water had started to recede while the storm marched its way up the East Coast, bringing warnings of more tornadoes and flash flooding. Emergency officials in Maryland said crews rescued motorists stranded in high water and a block-long section of street collapsed, sending cars sliding down a steep embankment onto railroad tracks.

Over the past four days, the system created 65 tornadoes and slammed Arkansas' northern Little Rock suburbs and the Mississippi cities of Louisville and Tupelo. Arkansas had 15 deaths; Mississippi had 12.

Authorities in Louisville searched for a missing 8-year-old boy after a large tornado killed his parents and destroyed their home.

Kunzelman reported from Magnolia Springs, Alabama. Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Steve Miller in Tallahassee, Florida; Jeff Amy and Adrian Sainz in Louisville, Mississippi; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama.; contributed to this report. Michael Hempen of AP Radio in Washington also contributed.