Great Miami Flood of 2017: Don't Blame Emily

MIAMI, FL — If you blamed Emily for the great Miami flood of 2017. Think again. She didn't do it.

"Basically what happened was we kept having different thunderstorms move over the same area," meteorologist Chuck Caracozza of the National Weather Service told Patch on Wednesday. "It wasn’t moving. The boundary was moving south and it just stopped at one point." (Sign up for our free Daily Newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Miami Patch.)

See also: Heavy Flooding Overwhelms Miami Beach, Parts of Miami and Miami Beach's Sunset Harbour Neighborhood Hit By Flooding

If you were caught off guard by the intensity's of Tuesday's severe thunderstorms — and all of the subsequent flooding along Miami Beach and the Mary Brickell area of downtown Miami — you weren't alone.

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"What we saw yesterday was extraordinary. It took everybody by surprise and this area of course, we have said, is the hardest hit area in all South Florida," acknowledged Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado at a news conference on Wednesday. City officials are in the process of installing pumps that would reduce the likelihood of future flooding at Mary Brickell Village.

Warning Coordination Meteorologist Robert Molleda of the National Weather Service said that the flooding was exacerbated by the fact that virtually all of the rain fell in a three-hour period during the mid and late afternoon, which subsided around 6 p.m.

He blamed the thunderstorms on an elongated area of low pressure that extended across South Florida and he agreed that Emily was not involved though the same trough that spawned Emily early Monday morning in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico was to blame.

"This along with daytime heating triggered a band of heavy showers and thunderstorms just off the coast of Miami-Dade County early in the afternoon," he explained. "This band then redeveloped to the west over Miami Beach, Key Biscayne and downtown Miami just after 2 p.m. and became nearly stationary, then redeveloped farther to the west and southwest across The Redland, Kendall, Palmetto Bay and Pinecrest. Rainfall totals of 4-6 inches were widespread in these areas, with isolated amounts of 7-8 inches."

He added that rainfall of 2 to 4 inches per hour was typical around the Miami area over a period of two-to-three hours on Tuesday.

"This in combination with high tide between 5-6 p.m. led to significant flooding in
the Miami Beach and Brickell areas," he emphasized.

Miami Beach experienced numerous reports of flood waters entering businesses, homes, apartment lobbies and parking garages. Water was 1 to 2 feet deep on streets in many areas of South Beach, including Purdy Avenue, West Avenue, Alton Road, Pennsylvania Avenue, Meridian Avenue, Collins Avenue, Washington
Avenue and Indian Creek Drive. Numerous vehicles stalled along streets around the city, according to the National Weather Service.

In Miami, more than 10 businesses, stores and buildings in the vicinity of Mary Brickell Village had at least 1 to 4 inches of water inside their buildings based on water marks and accounts from store employees. This includes stores and businesses on SW 10th Street between S. Miami Avenue and SW 1st Avenue. SW 10th street was also closed for half a block due to deep water, the National Weather Service reported.

The National Weather Service did not report any major issues around the rest of Miami-Dade County aside from flooded neighborhood streets.

Here are unofficial 24-hour rainfall totals for the period ending 8 a.m. Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service:

• (The Redland/Krome Ave & SW 200 Street (CoCoRaHS) 7.46”
• Miami Beach/Alton Road & 56th Street (CWOP) 7.19”
• Miami Beach Golf Club (NWS COOP) 6.50”
• Virginia Key (Miami-Dade DTPW) 5.25”
• Virginia Key/NOAA-AOML (CoCoRaHS) 5.18”
• Florida’s Turnpike & SW 173rd Street (CWOP) 4.72”
• Palmetto Bay (CoCoRaHS) 4.44”
• Pinecrest/The Falls 4.03”
• Kendall/SW 136th Street & 127th Ave (Wunderground) 3.84”
• Virginia Key: Univ. of Miami RSMAS 3.74”
• Brickell Key (Miami-Dade DTPW) 3.68
• Vizcaya Area (WeatherBug) 3.41”
• Miami/SW 25th Street & 27th Avenue (Wunderground) 3.33”
• Surfside (CWOP) 3.31”
• Pinecrest/SW 102nd Street and US1 (Wunderground) 3.19”
• Marlins Park (WeatherBug) 2.61”

Photos of Miami Beach and images courtesy of Andrew Hagen of the National Weather Service in Miami