MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Dozens of Central Florida families were forced from their homes when record-breaking rain from Tropical Storm Fay flooded their neighborhoods.

"I saw water in my house and I'm like, 'Oh my God,'" Lamplighter Village resident Wayne Wyckoff said. "Cars were stuck and wreckers were pulling them out and I knew that I was going to lose everything. Everything is flooded. I lost everything."

In the Lamplighter Village subdivision, flood waters forced officials to turn off power to the area.

"We've lived through several hurricanes and (I have seen) nothing like this," flood victim Timothy Tucker said.

The Brevard County Sheriff's Office planed to patrol the Lamplighter Village subdivision in boats early Thursday.

The flood waters reached homes and flooded cars in parts of Brevard County.

"Boy, it's a mess," Lamplighter Village resident Richard Hildreth said. "Why is it sitting around here so long? Why isn't it moving? My house is not underwater yet but my car is underwater."

There were 52 people seeking shelter at Sherwood Elementary School and 121 people at other Brevard County shelters because of the floods.

Record-Breaking Rain Reported

The city of Melbourne shattered a 50-year-old rainfall record after Fay dumped hours of rain.

"This area is seeing historic levels of rain with totals in excess of 20 inches already," Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said during a news conference Wednesday. "Additional rainfall of eight to 15 inches is possible through Saturday."

The storm dumped more than 20 inches of rain in some cities.

"This storm is turning into a serious, catastrophic flooding event, particularly in southern Brevard County," Crist said. "The weather forecast tells us that some areas could receive rainfall as much as 30 inches."

A majority of residents in the Kings Mill neighborhood in Melbourne evacuated their homes because of the rising waters.

Alligator Menaces Flood Victims

Meanwhile, a Fay-flooded community was warned about an alligator swimming in their streets and near homes.

"We have removed alligators, we have removed snakes and we've removed all kinds of wildlife," Brevard EOC Director Bob Lay said. "Our animal services and enforcement officers have been doing this all over the county for the last three days."

Wednesday night, a mandatory curfew was issued for a Fay-flooded Satellite Beach through 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Police planned to drive high-water vehicles through flooded neighborhoods. Officers will be offering help to homeowners.

"Just look for those blue lights and when they see a blue light coming just go outside and wave us down from their porch and we'll stop and we'll pick you up and get you to a shelter and make sure that you are safe there," Brevard County Sheriff Jack Parker said.

Parker said he expects many people to leave their homes because of the flooding.

"We are going to be out there all through the night," Parker said. "We are basically going to be putting law enforcement resources at all of these major checkpoints and all of these neighborhoods that have the flooding so that we make sure that people are not going in there that don't belong in the neighborhoods and don't live in the neighborhoods."