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DAVIE, FLA. (WSVN) - Two days after a severe storm wreaked havoc across South Florida, some neighborhoods are still grappling with flooded streets, stalled cars, and soaked homes, prompting residents to search for answers.
Miami-Dade County remains waterlogged, with a neighborhood near Northeast 116th Street and 14th Avenue in North Miami still seeing ankle-deep water.
“When it starts flooding, it gets real crazy over here,” said area resident Kevin Jean-Baptiste.
“It’s too much,” said another resident.
Reports of cars submerged and towed away reveal the aftermath of the relentless rain and winds.
Speaking through a translator, a resident who identified herself as Esperanza said the situation is “horrible.” She said her children have not been able to go to school because of the standing water. She said the water is so dirty because of the garbage cans with bacteria and germs.
Jean-Baptiste said the flooding has caused plumbing problems.
“We can’t flush our toilet, take good showers or anything. It’s like really terrible right now,” he said.
Parts of Miami Gardens also face lingering flooding, with streets in the 2200 block of Northwest 170th Street still submerged. Picture sent in by a 7News viewer showed traffic barrels floating on the roadway.
Residents said that in some spots, the standing water is knee-deep.
Residents attribute the recurrent problem to drainage issues, expressing frustration and hoping for a swift resolution.
According to Miami-Dade County Public Works, one of the two pumps in Esperanza and Jean-Baptiste’s neighborhood failed Thursday morning, and crews are currently figuring out how to bring in more pumping power.
For Esperanza, that help can’t come soon enough.
“Bring people who can work on the pumps to get the water out. It’s not fair,” she said.
In Broward County, the situation is equally dire.
Despite considerable improvement in many flood zones over the past 24 hours, a neighborhood off Hiatus Road in Davie remains submerged, leaving residents frustrated.
“Very concerned. It’s only two days of rain and, as you can tell, it’s terrible,” said area resident Ingrid Korkkanem.
Korkkanem said she and her family are halfway through building their dream home, and she can barely come and go with all this standing water.
“I was hoping that they would do something by now, but not yet,” she said.
A homeowner who lives across the submerged street compared his property to an island surrounded by water.
“This is the fourth time this has happened,” he said.
He is unable to leave until the water goes down.
Korkkanem said the neighbors keep an eye on him.
“I think he has someone who comes and bring him supper. We always keep an eye on him,” she said.
The parking lot of a nearby Broward College campus remained flooded on Friday. Classes were canceled for a third consecutive day.
The aerial view from 7Skyforce showed flooded rural areas housing animals. A pasture that several farm animals call home now resembles a swamp. One camel, an animal that can go days without water, was seen wading across the flooded pasture.
The flooding remains a lingering and ongoing concern for residents.
“It’s just very scary and hard when you’re trying to just, you know,” said Korkkanem. “I mean, you work, you have to go to the store and things like that. It didn’t feel like a hurricane or a tropical storm, but it was windy and it was just steady, it didn’t stop raining.”
Despite sunny skies on Friday, parts of South Florida struggled to recover, highlighting the resilience needed to navigate the aftermath of the storm.
Back in North Miami, Jean-Baptiste got his scooter back after it was damaged by floodwaters. He’s hoping South Florida gets a much-needed break from the rain.
“‘Cause it’ll sprinkle for a couple of hours, and it’ll rise up,” he said. “It don’t matter, it just don’t matter. Once any type of rain comes, it starts flooding just like this, and it stays like this for a while.”
Miami-Dade Public Works officials did not give 7News a timeline when it comes to bringing relief to the North Miami neighborhood that is still dealing with flooded streets.
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