Fay weakens to depression after drenching Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Fay was downgraded to a tropical depression late on Saturday after making a record fourth landfall in Florida and drenching the state's northern panhandle with heavy rainfall.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm, which killed 11 people as it crisscrossed Florida for the past week, could bring more heavy rains and flooding in the next several days as it moves west into Alabama and Mississippi.

Fay never reached hurricane strength as it advanced across the Caribbean, but it killed more than 50 people before reaching Florida, mostly in Haiti where a crowded bus was swept away by a rain-swollen river.

In its 11 p.m. (0300 GMT Sunday) advisory, the hurricane center said Fay's top winds had declined to 35 miles per hour (56 kph) and the storm was about 30 miles north-northeast of Pensacola, Florida. It was moving west-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph).

Fay, the sixth storm of what experts predict will be a busy Atlantic hurricane season, is expected to move over southern Alabama and Mississippi on Sunday and over southern Mississippi or eastern Louisiana on Monday.

Forecasters dropped tropical storm warnings along the northeastern Gulf of Mexico coast. Earlier watches included New Orleans, which took the brunt of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The storm had returned briefly to the Gulf of Mexico but turned inland early on Saturday, making landfall for a fourth time.

The storm dumped more than 20 inches of rain in places, including Port Canaveral, home of the U.S. space shuttle fleet. High water made it difficult for rescue workers to reach some storm victims until floodwaters subsided.

The deaths in Florida included an electrical worker who was killed in Tallahassee on Friday afternoon while trying to restore power to residents, and two women who drowned in heavy surf on Thursday in separate incidents along beaches off the state's Atlantic coast, authorities said.

The other deaths occurred in traffic accidents and an incident in which a man died of carbon monoxide poisoning while testing two power generators.

On Friday, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist requested major federal disaster aid for counties along Florida's east coast. The request would allow FEMA to make payments to individual homeowners, businesses and local governments.

(Editing by Peter Cooney