Nasty weather downs trees, leaves neighborhoods flooded in Miami-Dade and Broward – NBC 6 South Florida
South Florida was drying out and cleaning up Thursday after heavy rain flooded neighborhoods, knocked down trees and left behind other damage.
Hours of heavy rain left the Paradise Village mobile home community in Davie soaked.
Residents said two to three feet of water collected in the deepest parts, making it hard to tell where the lake ends and the pavement begins.
The good news was that most of the homes were set up above the flood line, but the bad news was that some cars were flooded out.
Resident Byron Wallace said his Toyota Corolla was probably totaled in the flooding, but at least everything else was ok.
“My home’s sitting up fine, there’s no water in it, comes up to a little bit on the driveway, I’m not concerned about my home, it’s the car that I’m concerned about,” Wallace said. “It’s a pain in the neck, yeah, I’m taking the day off of work, I’ve gotta go probably look for a new car today, that kind of stuff. I look at life from a positive frame of mind, you gotta take it as it comes.”
In Fort Lauderdale, the water was receding, but not fast enough for traumatized residents of Edgewood, where a foot of rain pushed floodwater up their lawns and into some garages overnight.
Michele Brandenburg isn’t even back in her house since April’s catastrophic flooding that brought four feet of water into her home. She and her family still live in a trailer in her front yard and have been for months, waiting for the extensive repairs to finish.
“It’s exhausting, you’re dealing with the insurance company,” she said.
The worst part this time around for Brandenberg is that she doesn’t have power.
“They got it back on, FPL was out here with the tree cutters at 1 a.m., it came on, and 10 minutes later they pulled away and it all went off again,” she said. “We heard a huge pop and sparks flying from the poles and it hasn’t been on.”
Officials said about 34 streets were underwater in Fort Lauderdale after Wednesday’s rain event. NBC6’s Marissa Bagg reports
In North Miami Beach, city officials said they were dealing with downed power lines, tree limbs, and trees.
Miami Beach officials said they experienced heavy rainfall and strong winds overnight that combined with higher-than-normal tides to cause flooding in various areas.
Officials in Doral warned of several roadways that were flooded and should be avoided.
In Miami, a tree branch broke off and landed on some cars parked along Northeast 15th Street. People who work across the street said it didn’t appear anyone was inside the cars at the time.
A massive tree branch split causing some damage in Miami after heavy storms hit Wednesday.
Police also were reporting closures and delays on Miami roadways.
Miami-Dade Transit was also experiencing delays, county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.
The Metromover system was later back up and running.
In the Florida Keys, Card Sound Road was closed as crews cleaned up debris. Several Upper Keys parks were also closed for debris cleanup.
Some residents in Key Largo said it felt like they were in a tropical storm. One woman said she and her husband couldn’t sleep because of the howling wind, and found debris.
“It was pretty brutal, we couldn’t sleep, the noise was just too much and around 3 o’clock we started hearing banging everywhere so he came out and he saw that this came down over here,” Joanna Beard said.
The weather was also wreaking havoc at South Florida airports for the second day in a row, with hundreds of flight delays and nearly a dozen cancellations.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport reported more than 230 delays, while Miami International Airport reported 229.
