Storm Soaks Florida Anew; Residents Brace for Floods

MIAMI — Tropical Storm Harvey drenched Florida’s Gulf Coast with more than 10 inches of rain Tuesday, forcing schools to close, flooding homes and businesses and playing havoc with travelers’ plans.

The storm left streets in the small fishing village of Everglades City under 2 feet of water as it quickly moved across South Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean.

At 11 p.m. EDT, Harvey’s center was about 115 miles northeast of Freeport, Bahamas. It was moving east-northeast at 31 mph.

In advance of the storm, schools were ordered shut in such Gulf Coast counties as Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota and St. Lucie, mostly out of fear of street flooding.

The storm dumped 10 inches of rain on Collier County and about an inch on Miami-Dade County, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.

Meanwhile, in Tarboro, N.C., villages of trailer homes and campers sprang up Tuesday for 1,000 families whose homes were swallowed by the flood waters of Hurricane Floyd last week.

It will still be a few days before the temporary homes open, and many weary evacuees welcomed the chance to get out of shelters.

“It’ll be a home. I can call that a home because there’s nobody but me and my family in one camper,” said Angela Davis, who has been staying with her son, daughter and hundreds of others at Tarboro High School.

Floyd dumped 20 inches of rain on eastern North Carolina on Thursday with catastrophic effect: 40 confirmed deaths, 30,000 flooded homes, 10,000 people in shelters. The early damage estimate of $1.3 billion is expected to soar and may exceed the $6 billion for Hurricane Fran in 1996, the state’s costliest natural disaster.

Floyd caused at least 68 deaths from the Bahamas to New England.