Divers Swim Over Submerged Cars, Through Neighborhoods To Rescue Homeowners

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- A police dive team swam over cars and through submerged neighborhoods to rescue homeowners trapped by rising waters from Tropical Storm Fay.

---

IMAGES: Top Viewer Flood Photos Top Images
IMAGES: Fay Floods Hospital; Diverts Patients
IMAGES: Canoes - Airboats Used To Flee Floods

---

"We found homes anywhere from a couple feet all the way up to 7 feet under water," Melbourne police Sgt. Jamie Rocque said. "So, at that time, the only way to reach some of these homes and make sure citizens were not inside -- but we doubted anyone could possibly be inside the (submerged) homes -- we had to use the dive team and boats."

The divers would travel down community streets in the boats and check one home at a time.

"The dive team actually got off the boats and swam to the homes and were able to check people inside," Rocque said. "As (the divers) approached the houses, they were swimming over cars completely submerged and fences."

Divers would then swim into the homes and search for flood victims.

"We ended up taking about six to 10 people out of those homes, which we transported back to -- I say a shoreline but it's not a shoreline because there should not be any water there. We ended up taking back to the shoreline for assistance."

One of the divers was nearly bitten by a snake.

"We had one of our divers, Officer Combs, who in fact, one of the situations he ran into was a snake," Rocque said. "A snake that is not used to being in the water is not a happy snake. It is just one of the situations we had to encounter."

Rocque said he was surprised that a dive team had to be used.

"It is just not something you expect, especially for what we call a simple storm," Rocque said.

Windows Become Front Doors

Meanwhile, some of the worst-flooded areas of Central Florida remained under water Friday damaging homes and in some cases forcing homeowners to use windows as front doors.

"The water would rush in (the front door)," victim Charles Jerry said. "It would make it worse that what it was. I was going in and out (of my home) from one of the windows. I had to go out the window."

Jerry was inside his South Melbourne home located off Main Street with his son when the floodwaters began to rise and did not evacuate.

"When (the water) got higher, that is when I started moving all of the clothes and all of the things that I wanted to try to save," Jerry said. "I've been trying to do the best I can with what I had left and what I tried to save. But it has been kind of rough."

Jerry said water filled his home during the constant rain from Fay.

Code enforcement officials put a danger sign on his garage door because of the flooding.

"Thank God I'm still here," Jerry said.

Aerial View Shows Damage

An aerial tour of Central Florida showed abandoned vehicles submerged on streets, homes under water and entire neighborhoods evacuated.

"I don't see how anybody can really make it (to the back of the Lamplighter Village subdivision) trying to get through these roadways," Local 6 reporter David Sprung said from the Sky 6 helicopter. "I can't even tell you where a roadway is. Because in this area, to me, all it looks like is water surrounding homes. It is completely flooded."

Homeowners in the Lamplighter Village community in Brevard County evacuated when waters began to rise Thursday and officials shut off power to the area.

Gov. Charlie Crist toured Lamplighter Village -- a community of 600 homes near Interstate 95 -- in a swamp buggy on Thursday.

"I couldn't believe all of the water," Crist said.

Crist said the area is the worse hit -- by far, Local 6's Adam Longo reported.

"We've lived through several hurricanes and (I have seen) nothing like this," flood victim Timothy Tucker said.

There is still about four or five feet of standing water in and around Lamplighter homes.

"I saw water in my house and I'm like, 'Oh my God,'" Lamplighter Village resident Wayne Wyckoff said. "Cars were stuck and wreckers were pulling them out and I knew that I was going to lose everything. Everything is flooded. I lost everything."

The National Guard has been the only personnel allowed into the subdivision to help the remaining people still inside their homes.

Also, the Department of Natural Resources said a preliminary estimate of damage to the Brevard County beaches is about $2.6 million.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.