Almost 12 Inches Fell on West Melbourne in 24 Hours, Patrick Space Force Base Went to Essential Personnel Only, and Cocoa Beach Asked Residents to Conserve Water
The Space Coast's storm got its measurement by mid-morning: unofficial totals near 12 inches in West Melbourne and 7.5 to 9 inches across the rest of Brevard County, on top of 2 to 3 more inches overnight. The base commander sent non-essential personnel home with water at car-door level on South Patrick Drive, a Palm Bay resident watched cars nearly covered in her front yard, and Cocoa Beach's wastewater system is overwhelmed.
The number that explains Brevard County's Monday arrived at mid-morning. Unofficial rainfall totals over the past 24 hours reached almost 12 inches in West Melbourne, the National Weather Service in Melbourne reported, with the rest of the county estimated at 7.5 to 9 inches — and early bands on Monday had already added 2 to 3 inches more. That is the arithmetic behind everything else the county did today: the closed schools in this station's earlier file, the flooded interstate lanes, and residents waking to water. 'We got up at 5 a.m. and looked out front to see the flooding. It's getting progressively worse,' Palm Bay resident Catherine McDonald said, after finding floodwaters overtaking her front yard with several parked cars nearly covered. 'I've never seen anything like this,' she added. Flooding was reported from the roadway in front of Patrick Space Force Base to Titusville and along Ocean Boulevard in Satellite Beach, with a mid-morning report of flooding on Ellis Road in Melbourne.
The space coast's military installation made its own call. At 9:07 a.m. Eastern, the commander of Space Launch Delta 45 directed all personnel who are not mission-essential at Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral not to report for duty, citing hazardous road conditions and localized flooding — and the post named the water's depth street by street: Rescue Road at car-tire level, the intersection of O'Malley and South Patrick Drive at car-door level, the Marina with water over the docks, and the Visitor Control Center at halfway up car tires. 'Mission-essential personnel should coordinate reporting requirements with their supervisors,' the post said.
By mid-morning the strain had reached the utilities. Cocoa Beach asked residents to conserve water because heavy rainfall and flooding are overwhelming the city's wastewater system — 'We are asking everyone to continue conserving water. Please limit water use as much as possible to help reduce the amount of wastewater entering the system,' the city said — and advised that trash and recycling collection may be delayed, with city recreational facilities closed. A county that has taken a foot of rain does not run out of emergencies when the rain slows; it runs into the second list — sewers, trash, docks, door-level intersections — and Brevard is working that list now, with the flood watch still running and more rain expected tonight.
