Crews are making progress on moving floodwaters following a tropical system that forecasters said dropped up to 20 inches of rain on some parts of South Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday morning.
Speaking from a Hollywood fire station ahead of an afternoon that promised even more rain for the area, DeSantis praised state, local and county teams for their efforts to clear roads and restore services.
"We had had a very, very dry spell," DeSantis said of the weather leading up to this week's deluge, adding, "The area held a lot of it (rain), but it was just so much inundation in such a short period of time that you ended up having this."
The National Weather Service in Miami on Friday morning warned that there was an elevated risk of excessive rainfall for Broward County on Friday afternoon, and a significant excessive-rainfall risk in Miami-Dade County, meaning both counties could experience flooding that has the potential to affect structures. A flood watch was in effect through Friday evening, the weather service said.
Palm Beach County escaped the brunt of the flooding with the highest rainfall amounts from early Tuesday through Friday morning northeast of Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee with 10.48 inches tallied by the NWS.
Other areas with high rainfall included Boca Raton (8.13 inches), Lantana (7.51 inches) and Delray Beach (7.34 inches). Other rainfall totals: Wellington (6.08 inches), Royal Palm Beach (6.72), Lake Worth Beach (6.70 inches), Jupiter (6.23 inches), Palm Beach Gardens (6.06 inches), Pahokee (5.94), West Palm Beach (5.52 inches), Boynton Beach (5.41) and Palm Beach (4.39).
AnEF-1 tornadowith winds as high as 95 mph hit Hobe Sound and Jupiter Island on Wednesday, uprooting trees and tossing debris along a 1.7-mile-long swath near Bridge Road, according to the NWS office in Melbourne.
The National Hurricane Centeris still tracking Invest 90L, the tropical disturbance that brought thedeluge of rainthat overwhelmed the road and drainage systems in Southwest and South Florida. It is now off the southeastern coast of the U.S.
The NHC also is tracking a tropical disturbance in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The area of low pressure is expected to form late this weekend or early next week. National Hurricane forecasters give the system a 50 percent chance of becoming the season's first tropical depression.
Either of those systems could become the first named storm of the hurricane season; if so, it would be named Alberto.
As for the recent flooding, much of Southwest Florida could still see an elevated risk of excessive rainfall, the weather service said, with a forecast for heavy rainfall in cities including La Belle, Immokalee, Naples and Everglades City.
The area already received 8 to 14 inches of rain — up to 20 inches in some places — and another 2 to 4 inches of rain could fall through Friday, forecasters said.
Flooding remains in many areas that were hit the hardest, Florida Department of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said.
Those with homes and businesses affected by the floodwaters should take photos of the damage before beginning any cleanup, he said. Any broken utilities should be reported to the proper agencies, and people should be careful to not handle any wires that might be on the ground, Guthrie said.
People also should not walk through or let children play in the waters, he said. "Some of that water may very well be contaminated," Guthrie said.
As rainfall totals began to mount Wednesday, state agencies moved in, sending personnel and pumps to South Florida, DeSantis said. The state also sent 10 pallets of food and 14 pallets of water to people in the region affected by the flooding, Guthrie said.
So much rain had fallen by Wednesday afternoon that officials were forced to close Interstate 95 at Interstate 595 in Broward County, a key interchange that was taken out of commission for nearly six hours that day, said Florida Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue.
The state sent crews with eight pumps to clear the water from the interchange, he said.
"We immediately deployed sources as soon as the rain event started," Perdue said, noting that his team began preparing when the forecast for this week was released.
Also Wednesday, DeSantis declared a state of emergency for the five hardest-hit counties: Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade and Sarasota.
The tropical weather that slammed South Florida this week followed a flash flood in April 2023 in which a storm system dropped more than 25 inches of rain in about 12 hours on Fort Lauderdale and surrounding areas.
Guthrie said the response between that event and this week was "night and day."
While that event led to Florida Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport shutting down its runways because of flooding, Perdue noted that South Florida airports were able to remain open this week, though there were delays because of the weather.
State officials are evaluating which emergency programs may be available to residents in the areas affected by the flooding, DeSantis said.
There is not the same number of damaged and destroyed homes that were seen during the flash flooding last year, Guthrie said. Damage assessments continue, and there are about 200 homes that have been identified with minor damage, with the total number closer to about 500, Guthrie said, adding that so far, it does not appear that any homes were destroyed.
Asked about the effects of development on the potential for future flooding, DeSantis said the decision for local growth and its pace falls to local communities and their officials. He referred to the Resilient Florida program that provides grants for municipalities, counties and special districts to address and prepare for the effects of flooding and sea level rise.
"This is something that impacts the entire state, so we now have put billions of dollars in the kitty over the last four years where you can actually have a local government that wants to make some improvements, they can get a grant from Resilient Florida and be able to make that happen," DeSantis said.
Florida has put $1.8 billion into Resilient Florida with 320 grants awarded since the program was established in 2021, according to an April news release from DeSantis' office. Palm Beach County and its municipalities have received millions in grants through the program, including a $1 million grant issued in January to provide money toward resiliency efforts in Cloud Lake, Glen Ridge, Golf, Haverhill, Hypoluxo and Palm Springs, records show.
"I told everybody, we definitely have to make sure by Saturday night the streets are good so everyone can celebrate the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup," DeSantis said to cheers. The Panthers lead the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 in the finals for the National Hockey League championship and could clinch the series on Saturday night.
