Threat Of Flooding From Fred Has Had Local Officials Busy Preparing
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Although Fred isn't a hurricane, it can still cause plenty of flooding in our community. That threat has local officials busy preparing.
"In general, I'm not worried about flooding on the beach," said Kimberly Martin, a Belle isle resident.
Martin is among those who live in the South Beach area. Even though South Florida is expected to get a significant amount of rain from Tropical Depression Fred, she said she's confident everything will be OK.
"They're different spots on the beach that flood more than others, but in general the city has done a very good job about trying to control the flooding the best way they can," Martin said.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said they've begun storm preps, activating the city's emergency management operations to a level two. They're also monitoring the storm.
"Any impacts to our community are expected to be felt overnight tomorrow, Friday, and then through the weekend," he said. "So while they are currently no watches warnings for our county, we are taking proactive steps like deploying portable pumps to low lying areas of our city."
Officials say the 11 temporary pumps will assist the existing pump stations to help alleviate potential flooding.
Randy Smith with the South Florida Water Management District said they have been emptying out canals all across the South Florida.
"Ahead of the storm what we want to do is make sure there's plenty of room in these canals except all the storm water runoff that we anticipate in this case from Fred," said Smith.
Smith said over the next few days South Florida could see upwards of 10 inches of rain. He added so far the efforts to move the water from area canals to ocean have been working.
"At this point going into Fred, we don't have any hotspots that were very concerned about that we weren't able to get the water," he said.
It's news that has many residents confident this rain event will have little impacts.
"I'm not nervous about Fred. I'm born and raised here, so I've been through a lot of hurricanes, a lot of tropical storms, and I really don't get scared unless it's a Category 5," said Sophia Iacovelli, a Palm Island resident.
Sentiments echoed by Martin.
"I'm not worried about it at all," she said.
