Miami braces for flooding as drenching rainfall expected to linger
MIAMI - With drenching rain in the forecast the next two days, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez urged residents to stay safe.
On Twitter, the mayor posted that the city is monitoring the situation and will provide updates as needed.
In anticipation of what Suarez called 'record-heavy rainfall', he said portable pumps have been set up in areas known for flooding, notably 501 NE 23rd Street, Morningside, and Mary Brickell.
He said they are also preparing to deploy Vactor/vacuum trucks to suck up flood waters where needed.
Officials said the city has added two additional temporary portable pumps on North Bay Homes Drive and at NW 13th Street and North Bayshore Drive, meaning there are now five portable pumps in operation.
City staff is actively cleaning storm grates and inspectors are checking construction sites to ensure that there is no overflow into the drainage system.
Suarez said they are in communication with the state's transportation department concerning flooding along Biscayne Boulevard and the Interstate 395 bridge. Some drivers in the area were left stranded in the high water from Monday's rain.
According to a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Transportation, the area is part of project that aims to add improvements to the infrastructure that designers say will alleviate flooding.
The project includes significant drainage enhancement to mitigate flooding, including Biscayne Boulevard from NE 11 Terrace to NE 13 Street.
State officials said the new drainage design utilizes a system of pumps, injection wells that can handle sea level rise better than the existing gravity drainage system. The new system, which includes the installation of a backflow preventer in the existing drainage outfall pipe, accounts for higher tides in Biscayne Bay to accommodate king tides.
Suarez's spokeswoman Soledad Cedro told CBS News Miami reporter Peter D'Oench that even though Suarez is out of town, the mayor said residents and visitors should be aware of the latest information since the National Weather Service is predicting several more inches of rain through Thursday.
"We are doing as best as we can right now and hopefully we can do even more," Cedro said. "Every time there is new technology and we are trying to be forward thinking and we are trying to encourage new technology. It's really unfortunate to see the record amount of rain here, not only the amount of water falling in to the City of Miami but (in) the amount of time. We haven't seen this. This is not one of these tropical storms where for 45 minutes we have heavy rain and then it ends. We've seen this for hours and hours and hours over several days. It is very difficult to work with that."
Some drivers and residents said they wanted the city to take more steps to deal with the flooding.
"There's a lot to be done," one driver said. " Better infrastructure and better drainage."
Another unidentified driver said: "I mean it's pretty evident here in Miami. I am a local resident and it is constantly flooded. It never changes."
"What we are proud of is that even though we had flooding we were able to contain the flooding over a short period of time," Cedro said. "The message is that the city is doing everything it can to avoid this flooding."
If residents need to report flooding, they can call 311 or download and use the iseechange app.
