PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Fay hung offshore Thursday and poured more rain on Florida’s central Atlantic coast after flooding hundreds of homes, trapping residents and leaving much of Florida a soggy mess.

Alligators, snakes and other wildlife were spotted in some flooded neighborhoods after high water drove the animals from their normal lairs.

Forecasters expected the storm to continue a zigzag course by hitting the state for a third time in a week, along with Georgia, but didn’t think it would strengthen to a hurricane over the Atlantic.

The storm flooded hundreds of homes in Brevard and St. Lucie counties, some with up to 5 feet of water, forcing dozens of rescues. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was reviewing Gov. Charlie Crist’s request for a federal emergency disaster declaration to defray rising debris and response costs.

“I want to stress that this storm is becoming a serious catastrophic flooding event,” Crist said.

Water was still high Thursday in much of southern Brevard County and officials feared the northern sections would be inundated next.

Emergency management spokeswoman Kimberly Prosser said wildlife officers have received several calls about alligators and other animals spotted in flooded neighborhoods, but only two small alligators have been captured.

“In the past we’ve usually had flooding in pockets. I have not seen anything this widespread throughout the county,” Prosser said.

About 10,200 homes and businesses in the county were without power early Thursday, and about 134 people spent the night in shelters, she said. The county is home to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, which has been closed to most workers and all visitors since Tuesday. The center reported no significant damage.

“We can’t even get out of our house,” said Billie Dayton of Port St. Lucie, as waters lapped at her porch. “We’re just hoping that it doesn’t rain anymore.”

Fay could dump 30 inches of rain in some areas of Florida and the National Weather Service said nearly 25 inches had already fallen near Melbourne, just south of Cape Canaveral.

In Jacksonville, residents were told to expect the brunt of the storm later Thursday. With schools, government offices and many businesses closed, streets were quiet and traffic was light at what would normally be the start of rush hour.

John Place, at a local Wal-Mart, said he and his wife has been prepared for quite a while. “This is not a panic situation,” he said. “If it was a Category 1, 2 or 3 (hurricane) making a direct hit on Jacksonville, you’d have something.”

The southern half of the Georgia coast was under a tropical storm warning as the outer bands of Fay brought start-and-stop rains along the entire 100 miles of the state’s coastline up to Savannah, which received more than an inch of rain Wednesday.

The National Weather Service said isolated flooding was possible in southern Georgia, where Fay was forecast to dump 3-6 inches of rain if it followed the predicted path south of the Georgia-Florida border through Friday.