Tropical Storm Fay left Florida, but she continued to spreadheavy rains throughout the South and created thousands of insuranceclaims, officials said.

The National Weather Center's Hydrometeorological PredictionCenter, which is now tracking the storm instead of the NationalHurricane Center, said Fay moved slowly through centralMississippi, but rains affected a region from as far west asLouisiana, east to the Florida panhandle, and as far north as SouthCarolina.

The storm, with sustained winds near 25 mph, is expected toweaken further over the next couple of days. Flash flood warningswere in effect for portions of Alabama, Mississippi, easternLouisiana and the western Florida panhandle. Flood warnings were ineffect for parts of northern Florida and southern Georgia.

The Florida Department of Insurance Regulation said as of todayFay was responsible for over 11,000 claims among four of thestate's largest insurers.

State Farm, Florida's largest personal lines property-casualtyinsurer, topped the list. A company spokesman, John Pisula, said asof today there were over 4,649 homeowners claims, 1,021 auto claimsand 571 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims.

The state's residual market carrier, Citizens Property InsuranceCorp., followed with 2,158 homeowners' claims.

The state's second largest p-c personal lines insurer, Allstate,did not report any claims to the state.

A spokesman for San Antonio, Texas-based USAA said in an e-mailthat most of the claims are primarily related to heavy rains (roofleaks and surface water) and flooding. That company reported 1,348homeowners claims, 169 auto, and 140 NFIP.

Mr. Pisula said the company received a significant number ofauto claims after the weekend. Homeowner claims were primarilyrelated to downed trees and water damage from backed-up drains, orseeping under roof shingles. While more than 80 percent of autoclaimants have been contacted, many homeowners will have to waituntil the water recedes before claims adjusters can get to theirhomes, he said.

"We dodged a bullet this time," said Mr. Pisula, noting that ifFay reached hurricane force winds then claims would have beensignificantly higher.

Last week, Property Claim Services, a subsidiary of Jersey City,N.J.-based Insurance Services Office Inc., said it did not haveclaims loss evidence and the situation had not changed as oftoday.

Reports put the death toll in the United States related to Fayat 13--eleven in Florida, and the other two in Alabama and Georgia.The storm has claimed more than 50 lives in Haiti and the DominicanRepublic.

Florida will also receive additional federal assistance afterfour major disaster declarations were made by the president forBrevard, Monroe, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties. The entirestate received emergency disaster declaration on Thursday.Additional counties are under review for major disasterassistance.

While touring a storm damaged region, Florida's Chief FinancialOfficer and State Fire Marshal Alex Sink said the department hasdispatched several department investigators and consumerspecialists into storm damaged areas to be on the lookout formisconduct and to provide assistance to homeowners.

(This story was updated at 3:46 p.m.)