A tropical disturbance has led to a rare flash flood across much of South Florida as residents prepared for more heavy rain on Thursday and Friday.
Wednesday’s rainstorms and subsequent flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and delayed the Florida Panthers en route to Canada’s Stanley Cup games against the Edmonton Oilers.
The disorganized storm system moved from the Gulf of Mexico over Florida at about the same time as the start of this year’s hurricane season in early June. are expected to be among the most active in recent history, amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the disturbance has not yet reached cyclone status and had only a slim chance of forming into a tropical system once it empties into the Atlantic Ocean after crossing Florida.
“Regardless of development, heavy rainfall is expected to continue across portions of the Florida Peninsula over the next several days,” the hurricane center wrote on its website Wednesday.
Numerous roads were flooded and impassable for vehicles. On Interstate 95 in Broward County, southbound traffic was being diverted around a flooded section and contractors were on their way to pump out the drainage system, the Florida Highway Patrol said in an email. The highway would not reopen until the water has been drained, the agency said.
The Miami Weather Service Office issued increasingly dire warnings.
“Life-threatening flooding is now underway,” the agency said on social media platform X. “Please stay off the roads and move to higher ground.”
Mayors of Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood declared states of emergency for their cities Wednesday afternoon. Later Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also declared a state of emergency for five counties: Broward and Miami-Dade on Florida’s Atlantic coast and Collier, Lee and Sarasota counties on the state’s west coast.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also declared a local state of emergency.
In nearby Hollywood, Mike Viesel was driving home with his dog Humi on Wednesday afternoon when he found himself in deep water on a low-lying street, he told the Miami Herald.
As he slowed and stopped, Viesel said other cars passed him, spilling even more water into his vehicle. His engine stalled.
“I would walk out of my car,” he told the Herald, but his dog “has a problem with water.”
In Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, there were already puddles of water Wednesday morning in the lobby of the building where Alfredo Rodriguez moved into a year ago. He told the Herald the building has flooded five times since he moved in.
“This is terrible. I can’t pull my car around,” he said of the flooded streets.
Dozens of flights have been delayed or canceled at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The NHL’s Florida Panthers were delayed more than three hours departing Fort Lauderdale for their nearly six-hour flight to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
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.
The winds toppled several banyan trees and caused some damage to a store, Martin County Fire Rescue officials said. No injuries were reported, but access to the wealthy Jupiter Island was blocked by debris on the road.
It’s already been a wet and stormy week in Florida. About 6 inches of rain fell in Miami on Tuesday and 17 inches in Miami Beach, according to the National Weather Service. Hollywood got about 5 inches (12 centimeters).
Bryan McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School, noted at .
“We are in trouble,” McNoldy wrote.
More rain was forecast for the rest of the week, leading the Miami weather bureau to extend its flash flood warning through Thursday. Another 6 inches of rain could fall in some places.
The western side of the state, much of which is already in place a prolonged drought, also received some major rainfall. Nearly 6.5 inches of rain fell at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport on Tuesday, the weather service said, and flash flood warnings were also in effect in those areas.
Forecasts predict an unusually busy hurricane season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates there is an 85% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season will be above average, predicting between 17 and 25 named storms in the coming months, including up to 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes. An average season has fourteen named storms.
___
Associated Press sportswriter Stephen Whyno in Edmonton, Canada, and Freida Frisaro in Cooper City, Florida, contributed to this story.