It’s not over yet. South Florida could see a new round of storms and flooding
Flash flooding hit much of Miami-Dade County Tuesday night as torrential storms soaked South Florida for a third straight day, with pools overflowing, cars underwater and at least two canals breached.
And Wednesday was only looking slightly better, with the rain chance increasing as the day goes on.
“Wednesday will look more like our typical summer weather pattern with storms in the afternoon,” said Heather Nepaul, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “We should have the lingering storms we have been seeing.”
The weather service pegs a 30 percent chance of rain in the region, mainly between 1 and 4 p.m. And rain could be a factor in Wednesday afternoon’s planned launch of a SpaceX rocket with two NASA astronauts heading to the International Space Station.
As for Tuesday, storms and flooding left a mess across South Florida. Sinking cars. Impassable roads. Ominous dark clouds and bursts of lightning.
The National Weather Service in Miami issued flash flood warnings Tuesday night across Kendall, Cutler Bay and Coral Gables until 11 p.m. Earlier in the evening, the Weather Service tweeted there was “Significant Flash Flooding” across much of Miami-Dade.
Heavy flooding could be seen in photos posted on social media, from Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami to the tree-lined streets of Coral Gables to cars underwater in Hialeah — nearly to their rooftops.
Nepaul said that with South Florida being “soggy” from the last three days of storms brought on by a combination of a surface trough to the north and winds coming from the south/southeast, many reports of significant flooding came in Tuesday.
Besides the flooding, the Weather Service posted a Severe Thunderstorm Warning throughout Miami-Dade County until 9 p.m. Tuesday.
At one point during the Miami Springs City Council meeting, held Tuesday night via Zoom, Mayor Billy Bain yelled as lightning struck nearby his home, and then his screen went dark. Councilman Bob Best, who lives nearby, said he thought he felt it, too.
City Manager William Alonso interrupted the meeting and said the Ludlam and Hammond Canal levees had been breached, and the public works department was servicing the matter. Neither Ludlam or Payne canals have guard rails.
In Hialeah, cars were “floating” in parts of the city, Mayor Carlos Hernández told city officials during a virtual meeting Tuesday evening.
A virtual council meeting and a charter school oversight committee meeting were both postponed at Hernández’s request so he could leave to address the flooding issues.
“We just got the call right now from police and the water department,” Hernández said around 7 p.m. “Cars are floating right now in areas in our city.”
About an hour later, Hernández issued an alert “urging residents to stay home” due to the flooding. The city’s public works director, Armando Vidal, said other parts of north Miami-Dade County, including Miami Lakes and Opa-locka, were also getting hit hard.
“This is too much water coming in all at once, and it’s affecting the county system,” Vidal said.
A city councilwoman, Monica Perez, said one constituent told her a pipe had burst around West 56th Street and 10th Avenue, bringing feces into the street.
Meanwhile, the Village of El Portal said it was aware of flooding along the C7 Little River Canal and has reached out to the South Florida Water Management District to request the flood gates be opened.
The wet weather followed a total washout of the Memorial Day weekend in South Florida.
Rainfall records were “shattered” in both Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, according to an NWS statement on Twitter.
Over the long weekend, West Palm Beach received 6.20 inches of rain, and Fort Lauderdale 6.13 inches.
Although the three-day rainfall record for Miami was not broken, the area received more rain than its northern neighbors, with 7.43 inches, according to the weather service.
Then, on Tuesday alone, Miami International Airport reported more than 7 inches of rain.
According to forecasters, those looking for a break may not get it until Wednesday morning. There was still a 50 percent chance of rain for Wednesday, with most of the moisture coming in the afternoon.
“It does look like it’s going to stick around, at least through the evening,” said NWS Meteorologist Steven Ippoliti.
Although the rain and wind seem similar to the conditions tropical storms can produce, this system spawned from an area of low pressure near Texas and is not tropical in nature, Ippoliti said.
But, like a tropical system, which typically batters areas with rain long after the eye of the storm passes, the conditions impacting South Florida Tuesday came from the tail end of the same low-pressure area that soaked the region over the weekend, he said.
“It’s just kind of sitting over us,” said Ippoliti.
Miami Herald staff writer Carli Teproff and Miami freelancer Theo Karantsalis contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 11:15 AM.
