Deluge brings record floods, weird scenes to South Florida.

Byline: Martin Merzer, Lesley Clark and Ana Acle

MIAMI _ Temporarily dispossessed by nature, a damp army of refugees waded through vast expanses of flooded South Florida on Wednesday in search of life's essentials: food, water, shelter _ and answers.

Miami-Dade schools officials announced that schools would reopen Thursday, except for 15 flooded or powerless schools located mostly in south Miami-Dade.

The nameless deluge of up to 20 inches of tropical rain _ not a hurricane like Irene last October but in some ways worse because it moved so slowly _ left at least half of Miami-Dade and portions of Broward resembling the swamp upon which they were constructed.

Pain and misery stretched from the vegetable fields of deep south Miami-Dade to the urban corridor of central Broward. President Clinton declared the region a major disaster area, a move that will trigger an undetermined amount of federal aid.

Miami-Dade county officials said an aerial tour revealed that 93,000 houses _ with an estimated 214,000 residents _ stood in flooded neighborhoods. Twenty percent of the county endured particularly severe floods.

Some areas fared worse than others: Eighty percent of Hialeah was flooded, affecting 160,000 people. And two-thirds of Sweetwater, affecting another 10,000 people. And half of…