PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. - People were plucked off rooftops and climbed into attics to get away from fast-rising water when nearly 24 inches of rain fell on the Florida panhandle and Alabama coast in the span of about 24 hours, the latest bout of severe weather that began with tornadoes to the west.

On Wednesday, roads were chewed to pieces or wiped out entirely, and neighborhoods were inundated, making rescues difficult for hundreds of people who called for help when they were caught off-guard by the rainiest day ever recorded in Pensacola.

Boats and Humvees zigzagged through the flooded streets to help stranded residents. A car and truck plummeted 25 feet when sections of a scenic highway collapsed, and one Florida woman died when she drove her car into high water, officials said.

Near the Alabama-Florida line, water started creeping into Brandi McCoon’s mobile home, so her fiance, Jonathan Brown, wrapped her 2-year-old son, Noah, in a blanket and they swam in neck-deep water to their car about 50 feet away.

They found the car flooded.

“Every which way we turned, there was a big ol’ pile of water,” McCoon said.

Brown called 911, and eventually a military vehicle picked them up and took them to a shelter.

Kyle Schmitz was at his Pensacola home with his18-month-old son, Oliver, on Tuesday night where it started to rain heavily. After 45 minutes, he gathered up his son, his computer and important papers and left.

“I opened the garage, and the water immediately flowed in like a wave,” he said. “The water was coming up to just below the hood of my truck, and I just gassed it.”

Schmitz and his son made it out safely.

In Alabama, Capt. David Spies of Fish River/Marlow Fire and Rescue said he was part of a team that found two women and a young boy trapped in the attic of a modular home.

Spies said rescuers received the first call of help before midnight Tuesday, but they couldn’t find the group until about 8 a.m. Wednesday. By then, the water was 2 feet below the roof. A firefighter used an ax to cut a hole through the roof and free them.

“They were very scared, they were very upset. I would’ve been, too,” Spies said.

There were at least 30 rescues in the Mobile area of Alabama. Florida appeared to be the hit harder. Gov. Rick Scott said officials there received about 300 calls from stranded residents.

At the Pensacola airport, 15.55 inches of rain fell Tuesday before midnight, setting a record for the rainiest single day in the city, according to data on file since 1880. By comparison, the airport in drought-stricken Los Angeles has recorded 15.9 inches of rain since Jan. 1, 2012.

Pensacola and Mobile are two of the rainiest cities in the U.S., averaging more than 60 inches in a year, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

The National Weather Service said forecasters issued flash-flood warnings as early as Friday, yet many people were still caught unaware by the deluge.

Elizabeth Peaden went to her weekly Bunco game Tuesday night. She said it wasn’t raining when she drove to the game but on her way back home, she drove her van through a flooded intersection and got stuck.

“I was scared out of my wits. Water started coming in, and I wasn’t sure what to do,” she said.

Peaden waded to a nearby American Legion post where she and about 20 other stranded travelers spent the night sleeping on tables or the floor.

The widespread flooding was the latest wallop from a violent storm system that began in Arkansas and Oklahoma and worked its way east, killing 37 people in eight states, including a 67-year-old woman who drove into high water in Florida.

In Clarke County, Ga., police said strong winds Wednesday morning pushed over a tree that crashed atop a car, killing Pedro Gerosquieta, 39.

Pensacola Police Chief Chip Simmons said two vehicles fell 25 feet when portions of a scenic highway collapsed. The truck driver was fine, but a woman in a car needed help getting out. Neither had serious injuries, Simmons said.

In Gulf Shores, Ala., where nearly 21 inches of rain fell over a day’s time, the scene resembled the aftermath of a hurricane. At the Sportsman Marina in Orange Beach, employee J.J. Andrews couldn’t believe what she saw out the window.

“We’ve got water up in our parking lots,” she said. “Our docks are underwater. It’s worse than during Hurricane Ivan, is what they’re saying. It’s crazy.”

The 2004 hurricane dumped 3-7 inches of rain along the Florida Panhandle.

Alabama’s congressional delegation wrote a letter to President Barack Obama on Wednesday supporting Gov. Robert Bentley’s request for an emergency declaration for the state.

By Wednesday afternoon, water had started to recede while the storm marched up the East Coast, prompting warnings of more tornadoes and flash flooding. Emergency officials in Maryland said crews rescued motorists stranded in high water and a block-long section of the street collapsed, swallowing several cars.

Flood watches extended from western Massachusetts down the coast to South Carolina, the weather service said. A flash-flood warning was issued for parts of eastern Maryland and northern Virginia.

Over four days, the storm system created 65 tornadoes and slammed central Arkansas and the Mississippi cities of Louisville and Tupelo. Arkansas had 15 deaths; Mississippi had 12.

Late Wednesday, Obama signed an order declaring a major disaster in Mississippi, clearing the way for federal assistance.

Meanwhile, the search continued for a missing 8-year-old Louisville boy whose parents died in Monday’s tornado, while another Louisville family celebrated the improving health of a daughter once feared dead.

At the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Coysheena and Willie Mitchell said their 4-year-old daughter Ashtyn, though still in intensive care, was getting better. A firefighter found the child after the storm, cradled in the arms of a dead Ruth Bennett, who owned the childcare center Ashtyn attended.

Ashtyn has casts on both legs and may need more surgery. She also has internal injuries. But she’s no longer on a ventilator and is asking to go to her grandfather’s house or the zoo, her parents said.

“All she keeps telling me is she and Miss Ruth fell in the bushes, and they said she had to go to the doctor,” Coysheena Mitchell said of Ashtyn’s version of events. “I don’t think she can process it.”

Mitchell said she was still trying to find a way to express her gratitude to Bennett’s family.

“Thank you is not enough,” she said.

Information for this article was contributed by Melissa Nelson-Gabriel, Michael Kunzelman, Seth Borenstein, Freida Frisaro, Steve Miller, Jeff Amy, Adrian Sainz, Russ Bynum, Jay Reeves, Michael Hempen and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Brian K. Sullivan and Lynn Doan of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/01/2014