Crews are still trying to pump water out of a Miami Beach condo as King Tides caused flooding in several neighborhoods across South Florida.

 

Valerie Navarrete and her neighbors at the Sunshine Bay condominium have spent the last few days watching water in the lobby and garage of their condo go nowhere. “It concerns me very much,” Navarrete said. “Once that comes in, it makes a noise of a waterfall. It’s violent.” Navarrete has lived at the West Avenue condo for 19 years, and says their building has seen flooding before. “This I’m kind of used to,” she said. Over the weekend, Naverrette had to move her car from the garage, which is something she says she had to do last year as well because of the flooding.

“The problem is when the street gets flooded, so now we have our water and the street water,” Navarrete said.

She was lucky, but others weren’t. Dylan Moritz said that when she tried to move her car, it was too late.

“I was able to open the door, and water just rushed out,” Moritz said. “It was the scariest moment I am telling, like the moment in Titanic when they’re holding on to the pipes and swimming through.”

Navarrete and many of her neighbors say their garage and lobby started flooding late Saturday night. Crews were at the condo Monday afternoon working to pump the water out. By late Monday night, some water still sat in both the garage and lobby.

Residents are concerned that the next high tide will bring all that water back.

“Something is not adding up in terms of not preparing for something like this,” Moritz said. “We can’t even conduct our everyday life.”

Miami Beach has experienced significant flooding from King Tides over the past several days.

Stormwater pumps alone can’t solve flooding caused by high tides, Commissioner Alex Fernandez said. The city is investing more than $100 million in the West Avenue neighborhood on improvement projects to raise the roads and seawalls.

“This is one of the biggest King Tides we’ve seen since 2017,” Fernandez said. “We can’t fight against Mother Nature, but we can certainly do everything that we can to make sure that moving into the future, our roads are higher and these neighborhoods have the best infrastructure that they can to deal with these natural impacts.”

Navarrete and her neighbors know they can’t control the tide, but they’re hopeful the city can find a way to lessen the impact.

“Yeah, we get mad, but there’s things that are unforeseen, and when it happens now we have to deal with it,” Navarrete said. “We need to do better, and by we, I mean our building, the city, we all need to work together.”

Several residents told NBC6 they haven’t had power in the last few days. The condo board association told NBC6 on Monday night that Florida Power & Light will be at the building Tuesday.

The Miami Beach Parking Department is offering free temporary parking at three city parking locations for people living in areas where street flooding happens during high tides.