MIAMI – The next two days are supposed to have a lot of rain, so the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, told people to stay safe.
The mayor said on Twitter that the city is keeping an eye on the situation and will give information as needed.
In preparation for what Suarez called “record-heavy rainfall,” he said that portable pumps have been set up in places that tend to flood, like 501 NE 23rd Street, Morningside, and Mary Brickell.
He also said that they are getting ready to use Vactor/vacuum trucks to pull flood water out of places where it is needed.
Officials said that the city has put two more temporary portable pumps on North Bay Homes Drive and at NW 13th Street and North Bayshore Drive. This means that there are now five portable pumps in use.
Storm grates are being cleaned by city workers, and inspectors are going to building sites to make sure there isn’t any extra water going into the drainage system.
Suarez said that they are talking to the state’s traffic department about flooding along Biscayne Boulevard and the Interstate 395 bridge. Some cars in the area were stuck because of Monday’s heavy rain and high water.
A representative for the Florida Department of Transportation said that the area is part of a project to improve the infrastructure in a way that will make flooding less likely.
As part of the project, Biscayne Boulevard from NE 11 Terrace to NE 13 Street is getting a lot of work done to make sure it doesn’t flood.
Officials from the state said that the new drainage plan uses a system of pumps and injection wells that can deal with rising sea levels better than the current gravity drainage system. The new system takes into account higher tides in Biscayne Bay by installing a backflow preventer in the old drainage outfall pipe. This is done to handle king tides.
Soledad Cedro, Suarez’s spokeswoman, told Peter D’Oench of CBS News Miami that even though Suarez is out of town, the mayor told him that residents and tourists should know the latest news because the National Weather Service predicts several more inches of rain through Thursday.
“Right now, we’re doing everything we can, and we hope we can do even more,” Cedro said. “Every time there’s a new piece of technology, we try to be forward-thinking and try to promote it. It’s really sad to see that we’ve had a record amount of rain here, both in terms of how much water fell and how long it took to fall. We haven’t seen this. This isn’t one of those tropical storms in which it rains hard for 45 minutes and then stops. We’ve seen this for hours and hours and hours over the course of several days. It’s hard to do anything with that.”
Some drivers and people who live in the city said they wanted the city to do more to stop the flooding.
One driver said, “There’s a lot to do.” ” Better infrastructure and better drainage.”
Another driver who did not give his name said, “It’s pretty clear here in Miami. I live in the area, and it floods all the time. It’s always the same.”
“Even though we had flooding, we are proud that we were able to stop the flooding in a short amount of time,” Cedro said. “The point is that the city is doing everything it can to stop this flooding,” the message says.
