Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in Florida today as Tropical Storm Fay criss- crossed the peninsula, leaving a sodden trail of record-breaking rains, floods and destruction.

The center of the storm, where maximum sustained winds were blowing at 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour, was 25 miles west- northwest of Daytona Beach as of 11 p.m. Miami time, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. It was moving west at 2 miles per hour, the center said.

Bush's declaration allows federal aid to be poured into Florida, little of which will be untouched by the storm by the time it leaves. Fay dumped almost 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rain in some areas, according to the center.

``It is looking like it is going to cover the whole state right now,'' said Blair Heusdens, spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. ``This is a very unique storm; if the tracks they are currently forecasting are right, it will make four landfalls, and that would be a record.''

Fay, which made its third landfall today as it headed west from the Atlantic, is predicted to cross the northern part of the state, move briefly into the Gulf of Mexico and then make a fourth landfall somewhere in the Florida Panhandle on Aug. 22 or 23, according to the Miami-based hurricane center.

Needing Water

``We need water but we don't want to get 10 inches at a time,'' Kevin Morgan, director of agricultural policy for the Florida Farm Bureau in Gainesville, said by telephone. ``The worst part of this storm is that it is moving so slow and continues to put out that rain.''

Fay may be the fourth-wettest tropical cyclone to hit Florida, judging by an unofficial rainfall total of 26.2 inches in Melbourne through 5 a.m., according to Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at private forecaster Weather Underground Inc.

Three previous storms each dropped more than 30 inches of rain on the state, led by Storm Easy in 1950, with 38.7 inches in Yankeetown, 76 miles north of Tampa, according to Masters.

August may also be the wettest month in Melbourne's history, beating the 20.23 inches that fell there in September 1948, according to National Weather Service data.

Orange Groves

After killing more than a dozen people in the Caribbean and hitting the Florida Keys, Fay made landfall on Florida's west coast on Aug. 19, plowing across sugar cane fields and orange groves before emerging over the Atlantic Ocean and virtually stalling yesterday. It moved back over land today.

``This extremely slow rate of forward speed could support historic rainfall amounts across the northern reaches of the Sunshine State over the next few days,'' said Jim Rouiller, a senior energy meteorologist with Planalytics Inc. in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Fay may cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage, Masters of Weather Underground said by telephone from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The storm mirrors Hurricane Irene in 1999, which also flooded large swaths of the state, he said. Irene caused $800 million in damage from flooding and lost crops, National Hurricane Center archives show.

Homes Flooded

In St. Lucie County, $25 million of damage was caused to buildings, homes and infrastructure, according to the county Web site. As many as 750 homes were either flooded or at risk of being inundated, and schools were closed for the week.

About 130 people are in shelters in Brevard County, which has a population of 534,000 and is home to Cape Canaveral, county Emergency Operations spokesman David Waters said by telephone. Residents in many parts of the county are being urged to leave, although there aren't any mandatory orders.

County officials are urging people to avoid walking and swimming in flood waters because of debris, sewage and animals including alligators and snakes.

The county has removed at least two 4-foot- (1.2-meter-) long alligators from people's homes, said Sergeant Linda Moros of the Brevard County Sheriff's Department. She said the county has also been hit by at least one tornado.

Elsewhere, rivers outside of Jacksonville have started to rise as rain falls across northern Florida.

The St. Mary's River at Macclenny, 28 miles west of Jacksonville, has risen to 10.34 feet and is expected to crest at 13.4 feet, more than one foot above flood stage, on Aug. 24, according to the National Weather Service. Black Creek at Middleburg, 24 miles southwest of Jacksonville, is expected to rise almost 17 feet to crest at 20 feet, four feet above flood stage on Aug. 23.

As of 3 p.m. Miami time, more than 35,000 homes and businesses across the state were without electricity, according to the Web site of FPL Group Inc.'s Florida Power and Light Co. Most affected customers were in St. Johns and Volusia counties.

Orange juice futures for November delivery were little changed at $1.0615 a pound. Florida is the world's second- largest orange grower.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 21, 2008 23:34 EDT