Watch CBS News

Rainy Season Has Arrived With A Vengeance

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - After months of relatively dry weather during winter and spring, many couldn't wait for the rainy season to arrive to help save their lawns.

Well, it officially started about a week ago and hasn't let up since. Bands of rain and thunderstorms have drenched South Florida.

On Sunday, Fort Lauderdale broke a record with 5.27 inches of rain.

Over the weekend, especially Sunday, the virtually non-stop rain made some roads in Broward impassable due to flooding.

Sunday afternoon shoppers at Sunrise West had to carefully pick their parking space in order to avoid the high water.

"This is the first time I've seen it like this. Even during the hurricane, it wasn't like this," said Roxana Camacho.

"It's pretty impressive. I don't think I've ever seen it like this," said Gino Gonzalez.

Earlier in the day at Sawgrass Mills Mall security guards roped off parts of the parking lot.

Some cars there were stranded by the rising water and had to be towed.

"If you can't see what's in the water you probably shouldn't be driving through it," said Angel Soltres.

The saturated ground in Parkland has led to lots of standing water on Wiles Road near Rock Island in Parkland.

For Ellie Scofield, who lives in the neighborhood, its become a rainy day routine to make her way through ankle deep, or deeper, water. But she's never seen it quite like this on the main road.

"The front road is completely under water, " she said, "This is the first time that Wiles road has flooded completely though.

In Davie, morning showers added to all the rain dumped on Sunday near Southwest 7th Court and 133rd Avenue, leading to more street flooding.

"Extremely frustrating, because we can't get out to go shopping or anything. We're kind of stuck here," said Kathleen White.

Residents say they've dealt with flooding in their neighborhood before but it concerns them it's this bad before the start of hurricane season.

Also in Davie the lumber yard at 84 Lumber is underwater. Some parts are under several feet of water.

"All the rain we got, we're lower than the surrounding area," explained manager Grant Piper.  "The drains fill up and the water kind of sits on top, there's nowhere to go."

They were will need pumps to get rid of the standing water.

On Fort Lauderdale Beach, the weather has been causing problems too, keeping tourists away.  Some finally making it out today.

Regena Dickerson is visiting with her family from Alabama.  When we asked what she was expecting on her beach vacation she said, "What the brochure said, sunny Florida!  We got rainy, windy Florida. That's okay, we've enjoyed it, it's not so hot as it would have been."

The rain has been leaving businesses empty as well.

Philip Tsiklis owns Boccaccio Cafe.

"It's been terrible," he said.  "People don't come to the beach when it's rainy, cloudy, windy."

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.