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South Florida Water Management District prepares for heavy rains heading our way

Authorities begin pumping out canal waters ahead of heavy rains
Authorities begin pumping out canal waters ahead of heavy rains 01:42

MIAMI - The South Florida Water Management District is preparing for the storms heading to South Florida.  

They have crews manning all 77 pumps in our area.  

A spokesperson for the district said the pumping station in Davie, near Griffin Road and 441 provides flooding relief for more than 350,000 people in Broward County.

They are pumping billions of gallons of water out of that canal and others like it to make sure there is room for storm runoff.  

All the water being released is heading into the Ocean.  This same process is happening at dozens of other pumps in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.  

Randy Smith, with South Florida Water Management District said they've been preparing and working with corresponding counties ahead of time so everyone's flood control systems are ready to go.

"In a situation where you have an incredible amount of rain in an isolated location in a short amount of time - that's probably the hardest to mitigate the flooding issues with.  But if you have 4-8 inches over 36-48 hours most everyone's flood control system is able to handle that," said Smith.

Throughout the day and all through the weekend crews will be stationed at pumps in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. They said they're prepared for the storms to come.

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