Miami Beach Pumped Millions Into Beating King Tides & It's Working
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami Beach was at the ready for the King Tides.
Sandbags were placed in position. Pumps were fueled and online. A newly erected seawall along Indian Creek stood tall.
Often the scene of high tide flooding, Miami Beach spent $25 million spent on Indian Creek alone – and it's working during the current king tide onslaught.
"So far we have not seen anything and that is very nice," said Chris Strohmeyer.
"They spent a lot of money," CBS4's Hank Tester told him.
"Yes they did, they did," Strohmeyer replied. "Let's see if it pays off."
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Over $400 million was spent city wide on the initial phase of the project, which included elevating streets around Sunset Harbor.
And the city of Miami Beach was very proactive, installing permanent pump to shield business from the high tides and heavy rains that occasionally happened at the same time.
Nearly everyone at Miami Beach Public Works was feeling good about the early results.
"The real story is there is no story," said Roy Coley. "The streets are dry."
Coley's comments came at 5 p.m. and held true three hours later.
At 8:15 p.m. with the high tide encroaching on Mami Beach, the new seawall did its job.
A group of contractors on hand to combat any flooding got to see their work in action. They told Tester that in two years Indian Creek Drive will be elevated as an extra measure of flooding security.
"We are committed to spending between $400-500 million on raising street that are too low," explained Coley. "The infrastructure is lower than Mother Nature wants it to be. We are literally raising them."
