Memorial Day marked by flooding, winds, rough seas. Wet weather persists through Wednesday

On a Memorial Day in South Florida usually marked by backyard gatherings, parades and sunny days at the beach, rain was the main event.

While Miami-Dade and Broward counties reopened restaurants and public spaces with restrictions intended to keep the novel coronavirus at bay, those who planned a barbecue or picnic to celebrate the long start-of-summer weekend faced a washout instead.

Torrential rainfall fell overMiami-Dade County, flooding roads, parking lots and even entire golf courses. The rain left motorists stranded, bicyclists soaked and Floridians indoors on the hallmark start-of-summer holiday.

A flood watch was issued early Monday for most of South Florida and will be in effect through Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service. A flash flood warning was also in effect for Miami, Miami Beach and portions of Broward County including Hallandale Beach and Dania Beach, through 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Later Monday night, a tornado warning was in effect in Pembroke Pines, Hollywood and Miramar until 9:30 p.m., and a flood advisory for southern parts of Broward County until 11:30 p.m.

And winds picked up Monday night, with forecasters calling for wind gusts of 55 mph and funnel clouds as the storm moved into the Atlantic over Hollywood and Dania Beach.

Forecasters wrote that it is possible for water to rise high enough to enter structures and make roadways impassable.

National Weather Service forecaster Robert Garcia said across Miami-Dade County, most areas saw 5 inches of rainfall. The eastern part of the county saw 6 or 7 inches, he said.

“It’s pretty soggy out there, travel is difficult and in some cases it could be dangerous,” Garcia said.

Lt. Alejandro Camacho, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman, said there were several crashes on South Florida roads this weekend, including one fatality Monday morning. Around 5 a.m., a man driving a white Honda south on the Florida Turnpike near Kendall lost control of his car and hit a Road Ranger truck that was parked on the right shoulder. The Road Ranger was assisting another crash, Camacho said.

The driver of the Honda, whom Camacho did not identify, died on the scene. The Road Ranger was outside of his truck and was not injured, Camacho said.

Monday’s torrential downpour was driven, in part, by a disturbance sitting atop South Florida. Although forecasters at the National Hurricane Center don’t expect the system to strengthen into a tropical depression or storm, it was likely to dump flood-inducing rain on south and central Florida Monday evening.

On Tuesday, forecasters expect the disturbance to head north, bringing heavy rain and rough surf to northeast Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas through Wednesday. The east coast of Florida could be in for “life-threatening surf and rip currents” through the middle of the week.

Federal forecasters issued special marine warnings for the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and warned boaters not to go out on the water. Some wind gusts of more than 40 knots were recorded with heavy downpours, forecasters said.

Many parts of South Florida experienced flash flooding Monday afternoon due to heavy downpours that dumped more than four inches of rain in under an hour in some areas.

In North Miami, where flood puddles obliterated curbs, sidewalks and swales, some enterprising drivers moved their parked cars to the center median of busy roads like Northeast 123rd Street to keep them dry. In Brickell, cars were being towed out of flood zones that some tweeted were reminiscent of Hurricane Irma.

In Little Haiti, Miami resident Carlo Villamil warned motorists not to drive down the 200 block of Northeast 59th Street, where he sat in his car and waited for a tow truck due to heavy flooding.

Few drivers braved the deluge Monday afternoon in the particularly flood-prone suburban neighborhoods in West Miami-Dade, some located as close as about 10 miles from the Everglades wetlands.

Cars stuck to the center of the roads to steer clear of the low-lying sides and navigated the large puddles in Sweetwater, Doral, Fontainebleau, University Park and Tamiami slowly and steadily to avoid bow waves and to dodge debris, which included tree branches and trash.

After the heavy rain storms ceased and the sun set, some of the back roads displayed more than 6 inches of rain.

During the deluge, a Miami-Dade wastewater treatment plant near North Miami Beach suffered a sewage spill. Jennifer Messemer, a spokeswoman for the county’s Water and Sewer Department, said the agency didn’t yet know how much raw sewage spilled out into the surrounding area, or how long the failure of the plant’s pumping system lasted.

She blamed the overflow of sewage at the North District Wastewater Treatment Plant, 2575 NE 156th St., on the heavy volume of stormwater as well as an increase in customers flushing wipes and other material not designed to go down sewer pipes.

“The screens were clogged up,” she said.

The problem was fixed after 7 p.m., and Messemer said details on the spilled sewage would be available once the agency completes a report to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection.

The COVID-19 testing site at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens closed Monday because of inclement weather, and is set to reopen at 9 a.m. Tuesday, though Tuesday is shaping up to be wet, too. Garcia said he expects 60 to 70% chance of rain Tuesday, and about 50 to 70% chance Wednesday. Different parts of the region will see different levels of rainfall, he noted.

“This week could still be quite wet,” he said. “It’s hard to say beyond today how wet it could get.”

Forecasters wrote that as the week progresses, one can expect a more “summer-like pattern” of afternoon showers and thunderstorms.

The National Weather Service in Key West reported a waterspout inside a thunderstorm in the Florida Straits that extended 20 nautical miles beyond the Upper Keys Monday afternoon.

The Middle Keys city of Marathon received 14.59 inches of rain for the month of May by 3 p.m. Monday, which is almost an inch away from setting the May record of 15.47 inches, set in 1968, according to NWS Key West.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Saturday, before the storms moved in, was a busy day on the water, but there were no boating accidents, and one arrest for boating under the influence of alcohol, said Officer Ronald Washington.

The Keys had several BUI arrests Friday and Saturday, as well as one person who went missing for more than two hours Saturday afternoon after a wave knocked him off his personal watercraft near Key Largo, said FWC Officer Bobby Dube.

The search began around 4:30 p.m. after a boater noticed the vessel drifting with no one on it in Blackwater Sound, said Officer Bobby Dube, spokesman for the FWC in the Keys. Within 15 minutes, an FWC officer spotted a man in the shallow water, Dube said. He was brought aboard the FWC patrol boat and treated for minor injuries.

“The operator informed officers that while riding his PWC in the bay, he was overtaken by a strong storm, knocked off his watercraft by a rogue wave and was unable to stay with his PWC as it drifted away by the wind from the stormy weather,” Dube said.

The man, whom police did not identify, said he was in the water for more than two hours before he was rescued.

Miami Herald staffers Douglas Hanks, Alex Harris, Jimena Tavel and Jeff Kleinman contributed to this report.

This story was originally published May 25, 2020 at 6:14 AM.