Palm Bay Mother and Son Rescued by Strangers on a Paddleboard After Three 911 Calls Brought No Help, She Says

Three days after Monday's flooding hit Palm Bay and the rest of Brevard County, Florida, one family's rescue shows how stretched emergency response was on Nov. 2, and who filled the gap.

Brittany Grant lives near California Avenue in Palm Bay. She says floodwater surged into her house and rose to about two feet above her knees. She and her son, Nikoa, who is 11, climbed onto the kitchen counter with their three dogs.

"This is insane, my whole house is flooded," Grant said in a video she posted online.

Three 911 calls, then Facebook

Grant says she called 911 three times. She says no emergency resources were available, and that she was told crews were handling widespread demand and could not reach her right away. That is her account. The sources do not include a response from Palm Bay or Brevard County dispatch on her specific calls.

With no one coming, she posted a plea for help on social media.

Strangers answered. Grant says the first to arrive were young people on a paddleboard, followed by others with a kayak and an inner tube. A couple in a raised truck had also messaged that they were on the way and waited at the end of the driveway.

One rescuer told her his mother had seen the Facebook post. The ages of the paddleboard rescuers, and whether they were brothers, have not been independently confirmed.

Nikoa went out first on a paddleboard. Grant and the dogs followed. No injuries to the family were reported.

"The community came together and saved us," Grant said. "Like if it wasn't for them, I don't know how we would've gotten out."

Her son described the ordeal as terrifying. "I have anxiety, really bad anxiety and it was like just stressing me out," Nikoa Pastorius said. The family is staying with a friend.

Grant said she has lived in the neighborhood eight years and never seen flooding like it.

The official picture

Grant's rescue was one of many. Palm Bay Mayor Rob Medina has said hundreds of people were rescued as the storm flooded homes and roads. Two deaths have been reported in connection with the broader Florida flooding.

That is the context for her 911 experience. Hundreds of rescues across one city means dispatchers and crews were triaging, and the volume of calls was far beyond a normal day. Whether anyone could have reached her sooner is not something the record answers.

What the record does show is that a family with no way out got help from neighbors with a paddleboard, a kayak and a pickup. Government cannot be at every flooded driveway in a once-in-a-generation event. People in the neighborhood moved faster than the official system could.

Election Day on top of the flood

The governor declared a state of emergency. Brevard Public Schools stayed closed Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Florida issued an emergency order covering voting in the affected counties. Brevard County election officials moved several polling places because of unsafe conditions, with replacement sites set up in Palm Bay and Melbourne.

Water began receding slowly Tuesday, and officials said some flooded areas could take days to drain.

Power and damage still unresolved

Florida Power & Light crews were staged nearby Monday night, but water still covered some streets. Restoration could take days in the hardest-hit areas, according to the utility's staging reports relayed by local stations.

The full extent of damage to homes, roads and utilities was still being assessed as of the latest updates. No total for destroyed or damaged homes in Palm Bay has been released.

The open questions are specific. How many 911 calls went unanswered in Brevard County on Nov. 2? Will the county or city review dispatch performance during the surge? Neither has said.