Worst floods in decades hit Florida

The worst floods in decades in the US states of Florida and Alabama have left at least one person dead and brought destruction across the South.

The victim is an elderly woman who drowned Tuesday after high waters submerged her car on a highway, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The heavy rain also caused partial collapse of the Scenic Highway, causing two vehicles to plummet 40 feet.

Bill Pearson, Escambia County, Florida public information officer, said emergency management received several reports of people being swept from their cars and those cases remain “unresolved.”

“It’s gotten to the point where we can’t send EMS and fire rescue crews out on some 911 calls because they can’t get there,” Pearson said. “We’ve had people whose homes are flooding and they’ve had to climb up to the attic.”

Wednesday was the single rainiest day ever recorded in Pensacola, Florida.

In southern Alabama, rising flood waters sent many scrambling to find shelter. The widespread flooding is the latest fallout from a violent storm system that began in Arkansas and Oklahoma and worked its way south, killing 37 people along the way.

Most of the eastern third of the US will continue to see heavy rain and the chance of severe thunderstorms and flooding until Thursday.