Brevard County Flooding Closes Schools on Monday After Up to a Foot of Rain Fell on the Space Coast Overnight
Six to ten inches of rain fell on south Brevard County overnight - nearly a foot in West Melbourne by unofficial counts - leaving streets impassable, U.S. 192 under water in Melbourne, every public school in the county closed on Monday and Kennedy Space Center staff told to work from home.
The Space Coast woke up under water on Monday. Florida Today reports that 6 to 10 inches of rain fell overnight across south Brevard County, with unofficial totals of almost 12 inches in West Melbourne and 7.5 to 9 inches county-wide in the Palm Beach Post's live tally. Streets were impassable in Titusville, U.S. 192 flooded in Melbourne, and the National Weather Service in Melbourne had flash flood warnings up for the county.
The closures followed the water. Brevard Public Schools closed all of its schools on Monday, and Kennedy Space Center staff were advised to work from home - a rare weather shutdown pairing for the county that launches America's rockets. 'Brevard County' was trending nationally on Monday morning at more than 20,000 searches as residents compared street-by-street flooding reports.
The water is not finished. A flood watch runs through Monday evening for all of South Florida and through 7 p.m. across east Central Florida, with forecasters expecting another 1 to 3 inches and isolated spots possibly taking up to 9 more. For Tampa Bay readers, the same storm system is the one giving Tampa its wettest day of the week on Monday - on this side of the state it is a rain story; on the Space Coast, it is a flood.
