Cleanup begins in Fla. on 5th day of Fay

STEINHATCHEE, Fla. (AP) — As Tropical Storm Fay finally got on track Friday to leave Florida behind, flood-stricken homeowners got an encouraging sign: Muddy brown water lines began appearing on the sides of homes, a clue that floodwaters were receding.

The fickle storm that stuck around for five days and carved a dizzying path that included three separate landfalls — the first storm in 50 years to do so — that dumped more than two feet of rain in some places. But to the relief of Floridians, it finally veered west on a path that should take it away from the state for good later this weekend.

By Friday night, the storm had crossed into the Gulf of Mexico, and it was poised for a likely fourth landfall over the Panhandle the next day.

Officials in Melbourne, one of the hardest-hit areas on the central Atlantic coast, carried boats down streets where just a day earlier 4 feet of water made roads look like rivers. Water several feet high remained in some neighborhoods, but most of the area had drained, leaving behind a half-inch layer of muck and mud.

The storm’s death toll rose to six in Florida and nearly 30 overall since Fay first struck in the Caribbean. Florida officials said four people died in traffic accidents in the heavy rain and two others drowned in surf kicked up by the storm. Before the storm ever blew through the state, a man testing generators as a precaution also was killed.

Tens of thousands of people from Melbourne to Jacksonville to Gainesville were still without electricity, and residents of Florida’s storm-stricken Atlantic coast faced a weekend of cleanup after chest-high flooding. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said so far nearly 4,000 flood claims from Fay had been filed.

On Friday, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who toured flooded communities this week, asked the White House to elevate the disaster declaration President Bush issued Thursday to a major disaster declaration. Crist said the storm damaged 1,572 homes in Brevard County alone, dropping 25 inches of rain in Melbourne. County officials put preliminary damage estimates at $53 million.

The storm is expected to keep