Miami- After this week’s storm, 100 complaints have flowed into Miami-Dade County.
There were no equipment failures, but there were weaknesses that could have contributed to the water backup.
“It wasn’t even a tropical cyclone, it wasn’t a hurricane that was a lot of water, and it was an awakening call that showed us an area that would really be very vulnerable,” said Mayor Miami-Dade. Daniella Levine Cava said.
Over the years, the county has made improvements to reduce floods, but storms raining a few inches across the region in just a few days stresses drainage systems, especially in lowlands and floods. May give-a region that tends to be like Cutler Bay.
“Well, from Monday to most, we couldn’t get back to my car,” said Maria Escandel.
Escandel is one of the few frustrated inhabitants of Cutler Bay, and she knows she’s in a flooded area, but didn’t expect the flood to continue for a few days after the storm.
“We’ve been living here since 2004 and we own it, not live it. We moved back in 2016 and it’s never been so terrible,” she explained.
Escandel wonders what has changed.
Cutler Bay is part of the district of Commissioner Daniel Cohen Higgins.
“The lake needs to be pumped down and reduced, especially before heavy rains in Saga and Cutler Bay, and the director said the manholes are being lifted,” Higgins said.
It may have contributed to overwhelming or blocking some drains. In other areas, communication with other cities and institutions needs to be strengthened in order to pump water and wastewater.
“Currently, we are very fragmented in how we manage stormwater. Each of these municipalities needs to manage their own stormwater,” explained Rashid Istambouli, interim director of DERM.
In the long run, more money is needed to maintain and upgrade pumps and devise new approaches to assisting the population.
“In the Cutler Bay area, people couldn’t leave the house because starting the car could stall, so we had to use transportation,” Higgins added.
This is part of the Biscayne Bay Management Advisory Board’s goal of making recommendations to the County Commissioner.
Higgins is the chair of BBMAB and she is working to raise money sooner, but it can take until November to get updates.
On the other hand, the ground in South Florida is much more saturated with water.
“Every time a car passes here, it’s pushed out, awakened, and pushed in,” recalled another Cutler Bay resident, Nelson Ramirez, of the water that had accumulated around this week.
Ramirez is still cleaning and hopes the pumps can catch up during this rainy season and could be a new solution from the county.
Source: www.cbsnews.com
