by A tropical disturbance has brought a rare lightning emergency to much of southern Florida as residents brace for heavier rain on Thursday and Friday.
Wednesday’s downpour and subsequent flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and delayed the Florida Panthers on their way to the Stanley Cup playoffs in Canada against the Edmonton Oilers.
The disorganized storm system pushing across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico coincided with the start of the hurricane season in early June, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity. .
The disturbance has not attained hurricane status and was given little chance of becoming a tropical system once it entered the Atlantic Ocean after crossing Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“Regardless of development, heavy rain is forecast to continue across parts of the Florida peninsula during the next few days,” the hurricane center posted on its website Wednesday.
Many roads were flooded and vehicles were impassable. On Interstate 95 in Broward County, southbound traffic was being diverted around a flooded section while contractors were on their way to pump out the drainage system, the Florida Highway Patrol said in an email. The intersection would not reopen until water had drained, the agency said.
Miami’s weather service office has issued increasingly severe warnings.
“Life-threatening flooding is now underway,” the service said on social media platform X. “Please stay off the roads and get to higher ground.”
Mayors in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood declared a state of emergency for their cities Wednesday afternoon. Later on Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 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 west coast of the state.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also issued a local state of emergency.
In nearby Hollywood, Mike Viesel was driving home Wednesday afternoon with his dog Humi when he got caught in deep floodwater along a low-lying street, he told the Miami Herald.
As he slowed and stopped, Viesel said other cars drove past him, sending more water into his vehicle. His engine stopped.
“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 in the lobby of the building Alfredo Rodriguez moved into a year ago Wednesday morning. He told the Herald that the building has been flooded five times since he moved in.
“This is terrible. I can’t drag my car around,” he said of the flooded streets.
Thousands of flights were delayed or canceled at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The NHL’s Florida Panthers were delayed more than three times leaving Fort Lauderdale on 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 touched down in Hobe Sound on Florida’s Atlantic Coast north of West Palm Beach on Wednesday morning.
The winds downed numerous banyan trees and caused some damage to a store, Martin County Fire Rescue officials said. No injuries were reported, but debris on the road cut off access to rich Jupiter Island.
It’s already been a wet wet week in Florida. In Miami, about 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell on Tuesday and 7 inches (17 centimeters) in Miami Beach, according to the National Weather Service. Hollywood got about 5 inches (12 centimeters).
Bryan McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School, noted on X that some 9 inches (23 centimeters) fell on parts of South Florida from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday in addition to the rain that fell on Sunday Tuesday. .
“We are in trouble,” McNoldy wrote.
More rain was forecast for the rest of the week, prompting the weather service office in Miami to extend a flood watch until Thursday. Some areas could see another 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain.
There was also heavy rain in the western part of the state, much of which was in a long drought. Nearly 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters) of rain fell Tuesday at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, the weather service says, and flash flood warnings were also in effect for those areas.
Forecasters predict an unusually busy hurricane season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that there is an 85% chance of an above-average Atlantic hurricane season, predicting between 17 and 25 named storms in the coming months, including up to 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes. An average season has 14 named storms.
___
Associated Press sportswriter Stephen Whyno in Edmonton, Canada, and Freida Frisaro in Cooper City, Florida, contributed to this story.
