‘Scary and sobering’: Miami-Dade, Cutler Bay mayors tour area facing ‘catastrophic’ floods

CUTLER BAY, Fla. – The mayors of Miami-Dade County and Cutler Bay toured a neighborhood inundated with water Tuesday following a torrential rainstorm Monday that considerably added to flooding from a tropical system over the weekend.

As county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and city Mayor Tim Meerbott joined different native officers in surveying circumstances, many in Cutler Bay’s Saga Bay neighborhood nonetheless couldn’t depart their houses Tuesday.

“That is very scary and sobering,” Levine Cava mentioned.

City officers mentioned water that sometimes drains right into a lake overflowed, spilling into neighborhoods. One resident described the lake as filling all the neighborhood. Sure locations had been underneath greater than 4 toes of water.

“It’s unhealthy. It’s actually, actually unhealthy,” resident Gelcys Nogueras mentioned. “There’s sure areas the place it’s receding little or no however most of Saga Bay is underwater.”

Advert

Meerbott known as the extent of flooding “unprecedented,” saying the city doesn’t have sufficient pumps to deal with the sheer quantity of water that got here in with the storms.

“It’s not a lot the difficulty of the water coming in, it’s simply not going out,” he mentioned. “Sadly, the one factor that’s going to get this out of right here is gravity. We don’t have sufficient pumps on this planet to get this gone.”

The city is working with the county and the South Florida Water Administration District to usher in extra tools to pump extra water out of Cutler Bay.

Pissed off city residents are hoping for a long-term repair.

“We’ve been residing right here a number of years,” Jeremy Cinicollo mentioned. “It’s getting previous. They should repair it.”

Levine Cava, who represented Cutler Bay on the Miami-Dade County Fee earlier than changing into mayor, mentioned she helps “long-term options.”

“We have to construct greater,” she mentioned. “We have to do the whole lot in our energy to ensure we don’t overload our water and sewer system.”

Advert

Residents needing assist are being suggested to name 911.