Victor Corone, 66, pushes his wife, Maria Diaz, 64, in a wheelchair through a street on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Miami Beach, Florida. Feet of flooding.
Al Diaz/Miami Herald/AP
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Al Diaz/Miami Herald/AP
A tropical disturbance has brought a rare flash flooding emergency to much of south Florida, where residents braced for more heavy rainfall on Thursday and Friday.
Wednesday’s downpour and subsequent flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and delayed the Florida Panthers’ trip to Canada for a Stanley Cup game against the Edmonton Oilers.
The chaotic storm system swept across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico around the same time hurricane season begins in early June.
The disturbance has not yet reached cyclonic status and has a low chance of forming a tropical system once it crosses Florida and enters the Atlantic Ocean, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“Regardless of how events develop, heavy rainfall is expected to continue over portions of the Florida Peninsula over the next several days,” the hurricane center posted on its website Wednesday.
Many roads were flooded and impassable to vehicles. The Florida Highway Patrol said in an email that southbound traffic was being rerouted on a flooded stretch of Interstate 95 in Broward County and contractors were pumping water into the drainage system. The agency said the interstate will not reopen until the water drains.
The weather service office in Miami issued increasingly dire warnings.
“Life-threatening flooding is ongoing,” the department said on the X social media platform. “Please stay off roads and get to higher ground.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the mayors of Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood declared states of emergency in their respective cities. Late Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also declared a state of emergency in five counties: Broward and Miami-Dade counties on Florida’s Atlantic coast, and Collier and Miami-Dade counties on the state’s west coast. Lee and Sarasota counties.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also issued a local emergency order.
Mike Viesel was driving home with his dog Humi on Wednesday afternoon in nearby Hollywood when he was struck by a Low-lying streets were flooded with deep water.
Wiesel said when he slowed and stopped, other vehicles passed him and more water entered his vehicle. His engine stalled.
“I would get out of my car,” he told the Herald, but his dog “had a water problem.”
In Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, puddles appeared in the lobby of the building Alfredo Rodriguez moved into a year ago Wednesday morning. He told the Herald the building had flooded five times since he moved in.
“It was terrible. I couldn’t drive my car through it,” he said of the flooded streets.
Dozens of flights were delayed or canceled at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The NHL’s Florida Panthers flew from Fort Lauderdale to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, a nearly six-hour flight that was delayed for more than three hours.
Further north, the National Weather Service in Melbourne confirmed that an EF-1 tornado struck Hobe Sound on Florida’s Atlantic coast north of West Palm Beach on Wednesday morning.
Martin County Fire Rescue officials said high winds knocked down several banyan trees and caused some damage to a store. No casualties were reported, but the road to the wealthy Jupiter island was cut off by debris in the road.
Florida has experienced a wet and windy week. About 6 inches of rain fell on Tuesday in Miami and 7 inches in Miami Beach, according to the National Weather Service. Hollywood is about 5 inches.
Bryan McNoldy, a senior fellow at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, noted on the Approximately 9 inches.
“We are in trouble,” McNoldy wrote.
More rain is expected for the remainder of the week, leading the Miami Weather Service to extend a flash flood advisory until Thursday. An additional 6 inches of rain could fall in some places.
Much of the western part of the state has been in a prolonged drought, but there have been some heavy rains. The weather service said nearly 6.5 inches of rain fell at Bradenton International Airport in Sarasota on Tuesday, and a flash flood warning was issued for those areas.
Weather forecasts predict an extremely busy hurricane season.
NOAA estimates there is an 85% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season will be above average and predicts 17 to 25 named storms in the coming months, including as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricane. There are an average of 14 named storms in a season.
