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King Tides Causing Flood Of Trouble

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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are under a coastal flood advisory through Wednesday morning due to the astronomical high tides, or king tides.

During high tides over the next few days, flooding may occur in low lying areas and streets near inlets and areas along the Intracoastal Waterway.

The waters rose fast on Monday morning in Fort Lauderdale.

Small puddles began to form around 9 a.m. An hour later, water spilled out onto Las Olas Boulevard and completely covered Riviera Isle Drive.

For residents the king tides bring a big dilemma.

"We are not going to sell and I do not think anyone would buy over here right now," said Betsey Doyle.

"It's not something that we can ignore it's not going to go away," said Julie Jones-Bernard, who owns Luxurious Properties.

For Jones-Bernard, her business has had to prepare their office for the King Tide season for the past two years that they've been at this location, but it's her customers she's more concerned with.

"I find almost every week now when I'm showing waterfront properties buyers ask me directly whether or not the property floods," she said. "So it is going to have an impact."

This morning her office hosted a discussion with  Congressman Ted Deutch, representatives from the FAU School of architecture, leaders in finance, science government and business.

It was a rare opportunity to discuss an issue while it was happening.

"If there's a more compelling argument about the need to take action than standing with water halfway up your legs on a gorgeous South Florida morning I don't know what it is," said Rep. Deutch.

Rep. Deutch says the time for talking is over. Action is what's needed as the ocean continues to rise.

"For the first time we've got Democrats and Republicans sitting together to talk about climate change," he said. "Shouldn't be such a big deal but it is."

Deutch stresses that he can only do so much in Washington. He says the state's top leader needs to acknowledge the rising tides.

"I tell the governor frankly, who continues to maintain that there's nothing, that the climate change isn't real," said Rep. Deutch. "He should come down here and get his feet wet."

On Sunday, high waters flooded streets in Ft. Lauderdale.

"It has been worse the last three years. It never did this in the past," Doyle said

Along the roads, 'No Wake Zone' signs remind drivers to go slow.

"Everything from the intracoastal comes up into the yard," said Todd Byers, who's lived on Cordova Road for 25 years, with the Intracoastal Waterway as his backyard.

The king tides flooded beyond his dock, almost halfway up to his back door, leaving debris from garbage to debris everywhere.

"The grass will be dead within about two weeks," he said disappointingly. "All the yard will be dead where the salt water is."

Byers said since moving to the area in 1991, the periodic-yet-predictable high tides have definitely worsened.

At Crandon Beach in Miami-Dade, water inundated what is normally the beach area and lapped against the road.

Lifeguards asked beach goers to walk with shoes or sandals on the beach since the tide brought in debris, including wood with nails and broken glass.

King Tides are also expected to occur November 12-18 and December 12-16.

The National Weather Service says that there's also a high rip current risk through Friday morning.

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