First Day On Rainy Season Brings Sporadic Street Flooding To South Florida

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - On the first day of the rainy season, heavy rain that fell across both Miami-Dade and Broward counties Friday morning left behind plenty of street flooding.

Opa locka got slammed by rain, receiving 4.76 inches of rain by late Friday afternoon, well ahead of West Kendall and Miami, which had 1.7 and 1.42 inches of rain, respectively. Homestead had .58 inches of rain.

CBS4 meteorologist Craig Setzer said Oakland Park had the most rainfall in Broward, with 3.16 inches, followed by Pompano Beach with 2.24 inches and Fort Lauderdale with 2.01 inches and Pembroke Pines with 1.75 inches of rain.

Pompano Beach and Oakland Park received the most rainfall in Broward, each receiving about 2.2 inches by early afternoon. Setzer said there are about a half dozen-such flash flood warnings every year in South Florida, with most occurring during the height of the rainy season.

It was especially bad along NW 135 Street at 25th Avenue, but fortunately no homes were flooded.

It was slow going on the Palmetto Expressway Friday morning as CBS4's Peter D'Oench slowly drove around Miami-Dade due to the heavy rainfall.

The rain came right on time because the official start of rainy starts begins today, May 15, and lasts through Oct. 15.

There was also some street flooding near Miami Shores at NE 109th Street and 13th Avenue.

The rain has led to the cancelation of COVID-19 testing at county-run and state-run testing sites throughout the weekend. All of the sites will reopen on Monday.

Some South Florida drivers were caught off guard.

"Got to be careful and slow down or cause an accident," said Gina Lopez. "There are a multitude of issues. I was unaware about this flash flood warning. I was not aware of how bad this is. This is horrible. You can't even get out of the driveway or parking space. People can get in a lot of accidents because they are not paying attention.

Making matters worse, there have been ongoing complaints in Opa locka about drainage issues following heavy rainfall.

"No help from nobody. No one comes out and helps and helps with service and everything," said Jason Lott.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue says it received reports of a number of car accidents and a downed power line that could be tied to the weather. Miami Fire Rescue said it did not encounter any serious problems.

In parts of Broward County, the scene was the same. Plenty of wet streets but luckily, no reports of severe street flooding.

WATCH: BROOKE SHAFER REPORT ON RAIN DRENCHED BROWARD

CBS4's Brooke Schafer stopped in Miramar and in Hollywood, where she noticed that off North 14th Avenue the streets were wet but did not flood. She noticed another good sign: a pump was off indicating there was no need for it despite the downpour.

In Plantation, teachers at developmental preschool and kindergarten were able to have a socially distant goodbye for the Class of 2020 and did not let Friday's weather rain on their parade.