South Florida is under a flood watch: Some areas may get up to 8 inches of rain

South Florida remains under a flood watch, with downpours already drenching the region and some areas expected to get as much as 8 inches of rain during this abnormally wet week, forecasters said Tuesday.

Broward County workers have been clearing out drains to try to prevent flooded roads, and residents were readying for many more days of soggy weather.

South Florida had seen about an inch of rain as of Tuesday afternoon. And over the next few days, some areas will be getting much more, said Shawn Bhatti, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.

South Florida is likely to be spared from the 10 to 15 inches of rainfall that is expected in areas on the southwest coast of the state, in parts such as Collier County, which is largely the result of a low-pressure system hovering over the Gulf of Mexico.

Still, “there could be pockets of very heavy rainfall on the east coast as well,” Bhatti said.

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch Tuesday morning for entire southern part of the state, which will remain in effect until Wednesday, but that could be extended. Excessive rainfall risk is “slight” for Tuesday through Friday and drops to “marginal” on Saturday.

Bhatti also said a “marginal tornado” threat exists for Palm Beach County through Thursday.

As the weather system in the Gulf of Mexico was set to bring heavy rains, it wasn’t likely to be the season’s first named storm as it crosses Florida.

“Environmental conditions are expected to be generally unfavorable, although some slow development is possible when the system is offshore of the U.S. Southeast coast,” the National Hurricane Center said.

Meanwhile, a forecast for the 2024 hurricane season was updated Tuesday without changes to the outlook for a highly active season. Experts at Colorado State University updated a forecast for the season, which started June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

“We have maintained our forecast for an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season in 2024,” the university’s Department of Atmospheric Science said online. In April, the university projected 23 named storms and 11 hurricanes, with five reaching major hurricanes status. By comparison, seasons from 1991 to 2020 averaged 14.4 storms a year, with an average of 7.2 reaching hurricane strength.

In South Florida, forecasters this week have warned of the potential for flash floods in urban areas, and workers are ready to respond to any emergencies. Broward County spokesman Greg Meyer said the county’s Emergency Operations Center was activated Tuesday morning to a Level 3, to “monitor and assess” the weather.

“Everyone is on alert to observe how this weather develops,” he said. The team at the county’s EOC “is monitoring the weather very closely.”

The Level 3 upgrade “gives us that heightened level of alert.”

On Tuesday, the county said it would be proactive to try to prevent flooding. Crews worked at four locations considered prone to flooding and low-lying: Plantation, Pompano Beach, and two locations in unincorporated Broward — Boulevard Gardens and Roosevelt Gardens — to clear stormwater drains.

The county has 15,000 storm drains and 1.2 million miles of stormwater pipes so “obviously we can’t clean them all at one time,” said Anh Ton, director of Broward’s Highway & Bridge Maintenance Division, which maintains the roadways. The pipes lead the water from the drains into lakes and canals.

“That’s how we get water off the roadway,” Ton said.

A vacuum truck gets into the storm drain, then the pipes, to either pressure wash the material stuck in the drain, or it gets vacuumed out.

“That ensures the pipes are clear for stormwater to clear through,” Ton said. Much of the debris is grass blown into the storm drains from landscapers. Trash also tends to clog drains.

Milk containers are fished out. “We find a lot in our storm drains,” he said. The work is imperative. “If the road is not clear, water can back up. Emergency vehicles can not get through, and if it backs up enough, it can back up into people’s front yards and into their houses. That’s what we’re trying to prevent, by staying ahead of the rain.”

Neither residents nor city officials want a repeat of the Fort Lauderdale downpours from April 2023. River Oaks was one of the hardest hit neighborhoods.

Those whose homes flooded that day still have PTSD whenever it rains, said Ted Inserra, president of the River Oaks Civic Association.

“Everybody has that shock of panic when all the rain starts,” Inserra said. “The roads flood so quickly. It doesn’t take much.”

River Oaks, a low-lying neighborhood in the midst of a $26 million drainage upgrade project, sits east of Interstate 95 and north of State Road 84.

For now, the city has pumps set up throughout the neighborhood to help move the water when it rains.

“We’re depending on the city with their temporary pumps,” Inserra said. “They say these pumps can only handle 4 to 7 inches of rain a day. But the people here, we don’t have a lot of faith in these pumps. We’re still extremely skeptical.”

Fort Lauderdale’s stormwater system is designed with the capacity to drain 3 inches of rain over a 24-hour period, city officials say.

Fort Lauderdale prepares all year long to ensure that its drainage system works as designed, said Nancy Gassman, assistant director of Public Works. “Prior to the wet season, we prioritize maintenance and repairs throughout the city, paying particular attention to vulnerable, low-lying areas,” Gassman said. “This week, our stormwater operations teams are focused on inspections and assessing areas that are flood-prone to ensure prompt response should problems occur.”

Fort Lauderdale also is closely monitoring areas where the city has made significant investments to validate the performance of the new stormwater infrastructure. To report impassable roads in Fort Lauderdale, call the city’s customer service hotline at 954-828-8000, cservice@fortlauderdale.gov or fortlauderdale.gov/fixitftl.

In Palm Beach County, the Lake Worth Drainage District is also active with the county’s canals to control groundwater levels.

Tommy Strowd, the district’s executive director, said because this “extended wet situation” is following a very dry May, which spurred what he called significant drought in South Florida, the district has a lot of water storage to work with and haven’t yet seen canal levels go up.

“Unlike what we would be doing in August or September, when conditions are really wet, we had a good start,” he said.

Though Strowd said he won’t be surprised to see some flooding, such as a parking lot where a drain is blocked, he is not anticipating the need to respond in the same way the district might have to in the event of a tropical storm or a hurricane, where an area could get 12 inches of rain in 24 hours. This is much more spread out.

“As the rainfall progresses and some areas get hit harder than others, we will make adjustments to accommodate for that,” he said.

By Sunday, the rain is expected to begin tapering off. But until then, people are being encouraged to stay indoors, if possible, and have a way to receive weather alerts and warnings.

Information from the News Service of Florida was used to supplement this report.