It’s Monday, November 9th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - Tropical Storm Eta brought heavy rain that caused serious flooding, dangerous storm surge, and strong winds that triggered power outages in South Florida.
Eta currently sits 45 miles north-northwest of Key West and 65 miles south of Naples and is moving west-northwest at 13 mph, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. A hurricane warning for the Florida Keys and Florida Bay have been replaced early Monday with a tropical storm warning that includes mainland South Florida. A storm surge warning and storm surge watch have been discontinued, as well as a hurricane watch for South Florida.
No. 2 – Eta struck Lower Matecumbe Key at around 11 p.m. Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.
On the forecast track, the center of Eta will gradually pull away from the Florida Keys and South Florida Monday and be over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico Monday night through Wednesday. The system's slow speed and heavy rains posed and enormous threat to South Florida, an area already drenched from more than 14 inches of rain last month. Eta could dump an additional 6 to 12 inches, forecasters said.
No. 3 - Rescue crews in Lauderhill were able to save a driver who drove their vehicle into a canal during Eta on Sunday evening. The dramatic moment caught on camera shows the danger of driving through flooded roadways.
The driver was transported to Broward Health in critical condition, but fire officials say they had a pulse. Fire rescue says the car hit the water and drifted 50 yards before sinking. Divers from Plantation fire-rescue searched the canal, fearing that another victim might be in the water, but nothing was found.
Local
No. 4 - Thousands of South Florida residents were without power as the area began to feel the effects of Eta.
As of 11:30 a.m. Monday, there were 19,640 reported outages in Miami-Dade County and 10,360 reported outages in Broward County, according to Florida Power & Light. Due to Tropical Storm Eta, FPL said they cannot provide specific estimated times of restoration for some areas. The organization is asking the public to exercise social distancing rules as their crews work to restore power.
No. 5 - Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach county public schools will not hold any classes Monday.
The decision was made due to dangerous weather conditions as a result of Eta, which brought heavy rains and winds as it passed by South Florida. Florida International University and Barry University have shut down their South Florida campuses as well. All FIU classes will be cancelled Monday, including remote and online classes. A spokesperson said that members of the university community and neighbors were welcome to park their vehicles on levels 2-4 of FIU parking garages. Barry University has cancelled all Monday classes and events that are based out of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, including remote learning.
No. 6 - Local weatherwise, the wet weather sticks around for several days before a return to near summer-like conditions South Florida has felt of late. Keep your NBC 6 app handy for push alerts on any severe weather as well as First Alert Doppler 6000.
