The remnants of Tropical Depression Emily prompted some Miami residents to take to the flooded streets in kayaks.

Though Emily was downgraded from a tropical storm to a depression Monday night and moved out to the Atlantic, heavy rain still hit the Miami-Dade area on Tuesday.

In just a few hours, storms brought between 4-7 inches of nonstop rain across Miami Beach and Miami’s downtown, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said. By rush hour, several streets were flooded.

Some drivers ended up stalled out in high waters while others — not wanting to take a chance — ditched their cars for kayaks and paddle boards.

Rains were heavy enough in Miami’s downtown and Brickell neighborhoods that manholes could be seen spewing water.

The rain overpowered the city’s new stormwater system. Miami Beach Assistant City Manager Eric Carpenter told CNN affiliate WPLG that Tuesday’s rain had “significantly higher intensity” than what the system is designed to handle: nearly 8 inches of rainfall and a peak of intensity of around 3 inches per hour.

People were left stranded after work in parts of Miami.

“So … I’m trapped at work,” Instagram user duchess_natasha wrote. “The Publix across the street has closed and sand bagged their doors to keep the water from rushing in. Cars are stalling out along the street. And then you have the guy who made a raft out of a floating barricade. Well, at least there’s food and alcohol here at work.”

The storms began to dissipate Tuesday evening, but there’s still a chance of rain Wednesday “due to lingering moisture in the air and the interaction of the sea breezes,” Guy said.

Florida’s usual sunny skies and hot temperatures will return by Thursday, he added. </s> Though Emily was downgraded from a tropical storm to a depression Monday night and moved out to the Atlantic, heavy rain still hit the Miami-Dade area on Tuesday.

In just a few hours, storms brought between 4-7 inches of nonstop rain across Miami Beach and Miami's downtown, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said. By rush hour, several streets were flooded.

Some drivers ended up stalled out in high waters while others -- not wanting to take a chance -- ditched their cars for kayaks and paddle boards.

Rains were heavy enough in Miami's downtown and Brickell neighborhoods that manholes could be seen spewing water. </s> Story highlights Up to 7 inches of rain fell in Miami area within hours

Flash flooding left residents stranded during rush hour

(CNN) The remnants of Tropical Depression Emily prompted some Miami residents to take to the flooded streets in kayaks.

Though Emily was downgraded from a tropical storm to a depression Monday night and moved out to the Atlantic, heavy rain still hit the Miami-Dade area on Tuesday.

In just a few hours, storms brought between 4-7 inches of nonstop rain across Miami Beach and Miami's downtown, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said. By rush hour, several streets were flooded.

Some drivers ended up stalled out in high waters while others -- not wanting to take a chance -- ditched their cars for kayaks and paddle boards.

A resident kayaking on the flooded streets of Miami Beach on Tuesday.

Piove??? 💦💦💦 #rain #miamibeach #southbeach #sobe #paddleboarding A post shared by Architect & Designer (@giorgiatiberi) on Aug 1, 2017 at 3:06pm PDT

Rains were heavy enough in Miami's downtown and Brickell neighborhoods that manholes could be seen spewing water. </s> Yesterday, a glancing blow from the Tropical Depression formerly known as Tropical Storm Emily sent Miami Beach into disorder as some of the worst flooding of the year took place.

When it was all said and done, about seven inches of rain, according to city officials, was dumped on Miami Beach in just about three hours. To add insult to injury, power outages caused parts of the city’s new pump system to fail. The ensuing flooding nearly reached car windows in certain parts of the city. In one Facebook video, a person can be seen paddleboarding through the street (2:15 in the video below).

The whole thing was a chilling omen for Miami Beach. Yesterday’s storm was bad—sure—but the city has seen (and surely will see again) storms much worse and much longer. If three hours could catch Miami Beach off guard, what will happen when an actual hurricane rolls through?

Many local businesses were forced to close for at least the afternoon. Pubbelly Sushi posted a video showing their entire dining room soaked in a few inches of water.

Miami Beach Mayor Phillip Levine posted a statement yesterday acknowledging the damage while reminding his constituents that only 15 percent of the city is covered by the new pump system.

“The new system is designed to handle 7.5 inches of rainfall with a peak intensity of just under 3 inches per hour,” the statement read. “Today, our city saw peak rainfall intensities of greater than 7 inches per hour. This is more than double the new design capacity.”

Be that as it may, Miami Beach has some serious planning to do. Going forward, we're going to need more than just paddle boards. Because it's not a matter of if this will happen again; it's a matter of when.

Want more? Sign up here to stay in the know. </s> MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – My what a difference a day makes for some residents of Miami Beach.

Wednesday they woke to bright blue skies and dry conditions.

It was a very different situation compared to Tuesday when torrential rains from Tropical Depression Emily turned streets to rivers and caused storm drainage pipes to overflow. Nearly half a foot of rain pounded the city right at the height of the high tide.

At the corner of Alton Road and 5th Street, cars created waves from soaked streets. It’s an area which over the years has flooded extensively.

On 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, which is in the heart of the beach away from the actual sands, there was massive flooding there as well.

In recent years, the city made a huge financial commitment to install pumps to combat sea rise and the not so rare down pours. But not all the pumps are installed and a power outage knocked several off line on Tuesday.

“We’re going to be installing permanent generators,” Beach spokeswoman Tonya Daniels told CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald after the flood.

What was noticeable was the water did seem to dissipate quickly, especially compared to previous down pours. The pumps clearly had an impact.

“A severe rain event like we experienced due to Emily is above and beyond the design capacity of our pumps. However, they performed well where they have been installed, which is 15 percent of our city,” Mayor Philip Levine told the Herald.

CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed to this report. </s> Well, uh, don't drive in Miami right now. Thanks to the remnants of yesterday's Tropical Storm Emily (which has since weakened to a depression), most of Miami Beach — and a big chunk of downtown Miami — sits under something close to a foot of water right now. Cars can't move, trees have fallen into roads, and a flash-flood warning has been issued for Miami Beach until 5:45 p.m.

Miami social-media users have been posting apocalyptic photos for the last few hours. You currently need an ark to make it through South Beach, and the National Weather Service's Miami office was forced to literally just tweet out the phrase "turn around, don't drown."

Here's a breakdown of which streets in South Beach are blocked off due to flooding — hint: It's all of them.

Frighteningly, some very vital passageways through town are inundated with water: Mt. Sinai Medical Center is getting hit with waves, and I-395 Westbound, one of the main causeways off the barrier island, is submerged:

It's not just Miami Beach: City of Miami Police on the mainland issued a warning about a micro-lake popping up downtown, too:

It also seems that most of Brickell is flooded as well. New Times reader Charlotte Zoda passed the following photos along:

Astoundingly, this is all happening without a tropical storm or hurricane even hitting Miami. Emily barely grazed us — had a storm or a full-on hurricane hit, things would likely look even worse than they do now. That's legitimately scary news: A November report from Miami-Dade County warned that the causeways leading people off Miami Beach are highly vulnerable to flooding due to sea-level rise. That means, as the globe warms over time, it's more and more likely drivers will get trapped on Miami Beach in a storm like this. </s> A day after widespread flooding left parts of Miami-Dade inundated with rain water, the mayors of Miami Beach and the City of Miami said they're working to put systems in place to help prevent another potential disaster.

Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado said around five and a half inches of rain fell in a matter of a couple hours in the Brickell City Center area Tuesday afternoon, damaging homes and businesses and leaving cars full of water.

"What we saw yesterday was extraordinary. It took everybody by surprise," Regalado said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Regalado said there was also major flooding in Little Havana and several cars were damaged by flooding in front of AmericanAirlines Arena. He said the Brickell City Center garage was still closed Wednesday, while part of the courthouse was also damaged.

Regalado said there are already several water pumps in Miami but that more construction is underway that will provide better drainage to help with sea level rise. The pump system is scheduled to be fully installed by end of the year.

"This is the consequence of nature. We cannot fight nature but we can do something to remedy the consequences," Regalado said.

Meanwhile, in a statement Wednesday, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine said he has directed city staff to immediately pursue emergency procurement procedures to install two generators for pump stations to prevent future flooding.

The purchase of the emergency generators was approved in February but Levine said the process to get them has been "bogged down in bureaucratic paralysis."

"As you can understand, this is extremely frustrating and the delay has clearly impacted the progress we've made to address flooding in our city," Levine said.

The heavy rain Tuesday pounded Miami Beach, transforming roads including Collins Avenue into rivers. Levine said the pump system drained the city's flooded streets quickly Wednesday morning. But more needs to be done, he said.

The Miami-Dade Office of Emergency Management is collecting information on the impacts of Tuesday's flooding on the business community.

Business owners who experienced damage or were forced to close their businesses due to flooding were told to report that information through the Business Damage Assessment Survey.

Reports should include insured and uninsured losses to determine if Miami-Dade County meets eligibility requirements for government assistance. When completing the form, owners should select Tropical Storm Emily under the Event/Incident category. </s> People walk on the beach as Subtropical Storm Alberto approaches in Panama City, Fla., on May 28, 2018.

Subtropical Storm Alberto’s pelting rain and brisk winds roiled the seas as it neared the U.S. Gulf Coast on Monday, keeping white sandy beaches emptied of their usual Memorial Day crowds.

Forecasters warned of life-threatening surf conditions as Alberto made landfall at Laguna Beach on the Florida Panhandle late Monday afternoon. A few brief tornadoes were possible in much of Florida and parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. But forecasters said flash flooding from heavy rain was the biggest threat for most areas.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said at 5 p.m. EDT Monday that Alberto was centered about 15 miles west-northwest of Panama City, Fla.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was moving north at 9 mph.

As Alberto’s center move farther inland – deprived of the warm waters that fuel tropical weather systems – the storm was expected to steadily weaken. A subtropical storm like Alberto has a less defined and cooler center than a tropical storm, and its strongest winds are found farther from its center.

Rough conditions were whipping up big waves off the eastern and northern Gulf Coast region, and officials warned swimmers to stay out of the surf through Tuesday due to life-threatening swells and rip currents. The hurricane center said a tropical storm warning was in effect from the Suwannee River in Florida to the Alabama-Florida state line.

Between four and eight inches of rain could pummel Florida Panhandle, eastern and central Alabama, and western Georgia before the storm moves on. Isolated deluges of 12 inches were possible. Several inches were also possible from Tennessee east through the Carolinas.

Lifeguards posted red flags along the white sands of Pensacola Beach, where swimming and wading were banned.

Some tourists said the rainy weather would not dampen their vacations.

Jason Powell said he was seeking to keep his children entertained until Alberto blows through his Florida Panhandle vacation spot.

“So far we’ve seen a lot of wind and the ocean is really high, covering up the entire beach,” Powell said, adding, “we’re not letting it ruin our vacation … we’re going to watch some movies inside and a little TV, and hopefully maybe even get into the pool” despite the rain.

Janet Rhumes said her group of friends from Kansas had been planning their Memorial Day weekend on Navarre Beach since October, and no tropical storm could deter them. They stocked up on groceries and planned to play card games.

“We’ve never seen one before and we’re here celebrating a friend’s 20th birthday,” Rhumes told the Northwest Florida Daily News. “So how often can you say you rode a storm out?” Rhumes said her group.

The mayor of Orange Beach, on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, said Alberto brought rain and aggravation – and dashed hopes for record crowds. Red flags flew on Alabama beaches and officers patrolled, making sure no one entered the water.

Elsewhere, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management said, about 2,600 customers were without power in northwestern Florida on Monday morning.

Scarlett Rustemeyer, a barista at the Fosko Coffee Barre in Pensacola Beach, said she always frets about power outages whenever storms come through Florida.

“My boyfriend and I usually try to go to the store and stock up on lots of bottled water, and get like canned goods and things that won’t go bad if our power goes out,” she said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a hurricane season forecast Thursday that calls for 10 to 16 named storms, with five to nine hurricanes. One to four hurricanes could be “major” with sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

If that forecast holds, it would make for a near-normal or above-normal season. An average hurricane season produces 12 named storms, of which six become hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.

Kay reported from Miami. Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this story. </s> MIAMI (AP)  A new tropical storm has formed in the eastern Atlantic off the western coast of Africa.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Friday night that Tropical Storm Helene was located about 405 miles (650 kilometers) east of the southernmost Cabo Verde Islands.

Forecasters expect the storm to bring tropical storm conditions to parts of the Cabo Verde Islands on Saturday night and Sunday. Officials say heavy rainfall on the islands could produce life-threatening flash floods.

The storm”s maximum sustained winds are 40 mph (65 kph) and it is moving west at 12 mph (19 kmh).
Several streets in Miami and Miami Beach are underwater after Tropical Depression Emily causes 102 to 178 millimetres of rain overnight.