Parts of Broward County were dealing with heavy flooding Monday after massive rainfall overnight from Tropical Storm Eta’s landfall in the Florida Keys.
Streets look more like canals after Eta rolled in overnight, including one neighborhood in Davie near Flamingo Road and I-595 where NBC 6 cameras saw cars taking the risk of driving through high standing water.
"I’m new in the area, so I’m quite impressed,” said homeowner Diana Medina. “I’m lucky I live on this side, because that side is…bad."
Broward remained under a flash flood warning until mid-morning on Monday, as did Miami-Dade County, while both counties along with Palm Beach and Monroe counties remained under a flood watch until Tuesday evening.
Over a foot of rain fell in parts of the county over a 48-hour period, while some areas like Southwest Ranches saw over 18 inches of rainfall in that same span.
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"All night long, we heard it coming down on the house and I knew what was happening," said Southwest Ranches resident Mike Miltnovich. "It was flooding out."
Surfers were advised of dangerous conditions in the waters along Broward beaches with red flag warnings telling people not to go into the ocean.
"There’s a lot of flooding in the area, but I guess that’s everywhere," one resident told NBC 6.
Everyone from law enforcement to two truck drivers were working around the clock to get those that needed it help as water invaded their homes. While some families are cleaning up, others are making the best out of the rainy day as kids played in the water with no school on Monday.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis called it a 100-year rain event, drenching already saturated streets.
“Once the ground becomes saturated, there’s really no place for the water to go,” Trantalis said. “It’s not like a major hurricane. It’s more of a rain event, and we’re just doing our best to ensure that the people in our community are being protected.”
City officials dispatched some 24 tanker trucks with giant vacuums to soak up water from the past few weeks. Some older neighborhoods simply don’t have any drainage.
The city passed out 6,000 sandbags to worried residents over the weekend but water seeped into homes and stranded cars in parking lots and along roadways.
Rescue crews in Lauderhill were able to save a driver who drove their vehicle into a canal during Tropical Storm Eta Sunday evening. The dramatic moment caught on camera showed 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.
“You can’t tell the difference between the parking lot, where the grass and the canal start," said Jeff Levy of Lauderhill Fire Rescue. "It was dark out here. Most definitely drove into the canal without knowing the difference.”
