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Tropical Storm Eta dumps rain on an already flooded Florida

Published:Tuesday | November 10, 2020 | 12:10 AM
Lemay Acosta and his daughter, Layla, 2, take a boat ride in his flooded neighbourhood in Plantation, a day after Tropical Storm Eta made landfall in the Florida Keys and flooded parts of South Florida yesterday.
AP
Lemay Acosta and his daughter, Layla, 2, take a boat ride in his flooded neighbourhood in Plantation, a day after Tropical Storm Eta made landfall in the Florida Keys and flooded parts of South Florida yesterday.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP):

A deluge of rain from Tropical Storm Eta caused flooding yesterday across South Florida’s most densely populated urban areas, stranding cars, flooding businesses, and swamping entire neighbourhood with fast-rising water that had no place to drain.

The system made landfall in the Florida Keys and posed a serious threat across South Florida, which was already drenched from more than 14 inches (35 centimetres) of rain last month.

After striking Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane and killing nearly 70 people from Mexico to Panama, the storm moved into the Gulf of Mexico early Monday near where the Everglades meet the sea, with maximum sustained winds of 50mph (85kph). It was about 135 miles (217 kilometres) west-southwest of the Dry Tortugas, moving southwest at 16mph (26kph). Rain and wind were felt as far north as the Tampa Bay Area.

Eta hit land late Sunday as it blew over Lower Matecumbe, in the middle of the chain of small islands that form the Keys, but the heavily populated areas of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties bore the brunt of the fury.

Forecasters said the system could intensify again into a minimal hurricane as it slowly moves up the southwest Gulf Coast. It is just far enough offshore to maintain its strength while dumping vast amounts of water across the lower third of the Florida peninsula.

Eta was not done yet with Cuba, just 90 miles south of Florida, where the storm continued to swell rivers and flood coastal zones. Some 25,000 people were evacuated with no reports of deaths, but rainfall continued, with total accumulations of up to 25 inches (63 centimetres) predicted. A tropical storm watch was in effect for parts of the island.

Authorities in Central America were still surveying the damage yesterday after days of torrential rain. Official death tolls totalled at least 68 people, but hundreds more were missing, and many thousands were in shelters after flash floods tore through communities of improvised homes on unstable mountainsides.