Properties flooded by week of rainfall
Dayslong deluge could start Thursday; system possible in Caribbean.
A short reprieve to relentless wet weather settled in Monday after a weeklong soaker added to rain totals nearly four times higher than normal for this time in May.
An average 10.5 inches of rain fell through Sunday in most of residential Palm Beach County. That’s 7.8 inches more than what’s typical for the first three weeks of May and 365 percent of normal.
The deluge, which intensified Saturday, left behind submerged parking lots, full retention ponds and a recharged groundwater supply.
Flooded roads in far western Palm Beach County made evacuating animals from the Barky Pines Animal Rescue and Sanctuary a challenge Monday as founder Elizabeth Accomando struggled to find temporary homes for 35 dogs, 40 chickens, 24 ducks and assorted pigs, goats and cows.
She estimated all but about 100 square feet of her 6-acre property was under water with depths ranging from 8 inches to 3 feet.
“I have chihuahuas that will drown if I don’t shuttle them to high ground so they can go to the bathroom,” she said. “This is bad, this is really, really bad.”
Although a return to a normal rainy season pattern of afternoon showers and thunderstorms is expected through midweek, another dayslong downpour may begin Thursday and continue into Memorial Day.
The National Hurricane Center is giving an area of storminess in the Caribbean a 20 percent chance of developing into a tropical or sub tropical system during the next five days as it moves north into the Gulf of Mexico.
While hurricane season doesn’t begin until June 1, this is the second time this month the hurricane center has tagged an area in the Gulf for becoming a possible tropical system.
If the area grows to tropical storm status, it would be named Alberto. Regardless of whether Alberto forms, the system is forecast to bring more rain.
“It looks like a wet weekend for South Florida,” said Larry Kelly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.
Florida climatologist David Zierden said it’s unusual for rainy seasons to start with such a deluge, although a similar atmospheric setup happened last year, abruptly ending an unusually deep dry season with 8 inches of rain.
“The rainy season is usually characterized by warmer temperatures, higher dew points and the start of afternoon thunderstorms along the sea breeze,” Zierden said.
Instead, this season and the 2017 season were jumpstarted by areas of low pressure pumping tropical moisture into the state.
On Monday, South Florida Water Management District Chief Engineer John Mitnik was checking flood control systems south of Palm Beach County after a record 5.27 inches of rain in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. The previous record in Fort Lauderdale for that day was 4.86 inches set in 2013.
The district began lowering its canals before the rainfall began last week and is able to accommodate increases in flow from local drainage districts.
In Loxahatchee Groves, water continues to flow from its canals to the C-51 through the town’s gravity-driven, automated drainage system, said Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District manager Stephen Yohe. The system opens drains when canal levels reach above 2 feet, then closes them when the canal falls back below 2 feet.
That process “started in earnest” May 11, Yohe said.
Many residents have water pooling on their properties, he said, with some septic tank issues reported. “When the water level is raised, their septic tanks don’t function as they should,” Yohe said.
The Lake Worth Drainage District allowed communities to open their flood control gates until 6 p.m. Monday to allow standing water to recede.
Rosemary Rayman, a spokeswoman for the Lake Worth Drainage District, said many suburban Boca Raton residents called during the weekend concerned about water in the streets, swales and sidewalks.
“When it rains really hard for a short period of time, those areas work as a secondary retention area,” she said. “This was not a hurricane, this was just a South Florida rain event with a lot of rain in a small period of time.”
Lake Okeechobee was at 13.5 feet above sea level Monday. That’s an increase of 8 inches over the past week, said John Campbell, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps prefers the lake to remain between 12.5 and 15.5 feet above sea level and would like it to be at the lower end of that range at the start of the rainy season.
If the lake gets too high, water must be discharged into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries where it can damage the higher-saline ecosystems.
Accomando, of the Barky Pines Animal Rescue, said her property lies in a no-man’s land for flood control — neither managed by the county or nearby drainage districts. She’s fearful what more rain this weekend will mean.
“We may have three dry days but there is more than 5 acres under water,” she said. “I’m basically up the creek.”