ORLANDO — The first tropical threat of the hurricane season in Florida washed across the state overnight Friday, leaving South Florida residents and local officials to deal with flooding, power outages, stranded vehicles and hours of cleanup, affecting some businesses.
In Miami, drivers faced slashing rains and flooded streets in the early hours of Saturday morning. The city’s fire department responded to several people caught in cars amid the rising waters. Six high-water vehicles deployed in the city, the department said on Twitter. Winds of 40 miles per hour did not meet the threshold necessary for the system to be classified as Tropical Storm Alex, but they did slosh water into the downtown area, including in parking areas of condominiums.
The storm has brought more than 10 inches of rain to Miami over a 72-hour span, according to Accuweather, but other areas, including Key Largo (11 inches) and Biscayne Park (11.6), saw higher totals. There was also reported flooding in communities outside Miami including Hialeah and Hollywood, as well as in Naples, Fla., on the Gulf Coast.
Power outages did not soar overnight, however. As of 9 a.m. on Saturday, Miami-Dade County had 4,083 outages according to PowerOutage.us, though that number dropped to 1,310 by 11:30 a.m. Surrounding counties of Broward and Palm Beach reported 985 and 214, respectively.
To the west, Collier County, home of well-populated Naples, had 226 outages reported at 9 a.m., but only two by 11:30. Lee County, further to the north along the Gulf Coast, had 47. By noon, all tropical warnings were canceled in most of southwest Florida as the storm pounded the Treasure Coast in the southeastern region, according to the National Weather Service.
Although meteorologists said the storm never fully organized as it traveled from the Gulf of Mexico toward the Keys (it could still strengthen as it leaves the Atlantic coast, they said), it does not take much rain to cause mayhem in Miami — especially on a weekend night when many are out.
Goncalo Gil, 26, stayed inside as streets clogged with water outside his apartment in the Miami neighborhood of Brickell. Mr. Gil, a student pilot, who posted a video of flooded streets on Twitter, wondered if the city’s flood prevention system, which included storm water pumps and sea walls, had worked as intended. “From midnight, everywhere was flooded, every car was stalled,” he said.
Kash Kashmiri, 30, arrived at Total Nutrition in Brickell by 10 a.m. and found a customer waiting outside for him. The store manager saw water inside the entryway and fretted about allowing anyone inside. Mr. Kashmiri offered to gather the products that the customer needed and do a cash transaction at the front door. The customer helped move sandbags while he waited, then paid for an assortment of protein doughnuts, healthy snacks and energy drinks.
Mr. Kashmiri said he had to turn away other customers because they didn’t have cash. But he added that some flooding was fairly standard for Miami. “Normal down here is where there’s a heavy storm, you can expect slight flooding,” he said by phone. “Any kind of tropical storm, you can expect flooding for sure.”
More than two hours into his shift, the rain picked up again and he noticed people in the area tying down furniture.
Warnings about continued possible weather risks remained for the weekend.
“The main threat right now is the potential for heavy rainfall and flash flooding,” said Maria Torres, a spokeswoman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami, on Friday.
Early Saturday, the center warned of “considerable flash and urban flooding” in South Florida.
Rainfall totals associated with the storm were expected to be wide-ranging. Western Cuba could see up to 14 inches of rain with the possibility of life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides, forecasters said. Some areas in the northwestern Bahamas could see up to 10 inches.
The forecast for Florida included the possibility of tornadoes over the southern portion of the state through Saturday. The Hurricane Center also said that some cities in the state could see a storm surge of up to three feet.
People who live in parts of South Florida that are prone to floods should identify a safe place to go to if waters begin to rise, and be careful not to drive through standing water, Ms. Torres said on Friday.
“Turn around, don’t drown,” she said.
Hurricane Agatha, the first named storm in the eastern Pacific region, roared into Mexico this week as a Category 2 storm with heavy rains and damaging winds. It killed at least nine people and left five others missing, the governor of the southern state of Oaxaca, Alejandro Murat, said on Friday morning.
Concerns about dangerous weather in the Atlantic began this week when forecasters said a large area of disturbed weather, related to the remnants of Hurricane Agatha, had formed near the Yucatán Peninsula and had interacted with an upper-level trough over the Gulf of Mexico.
Meteorologists expect an “above normal” Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through Nov. 30, with 14 to 21 named storms considered likely. Up to 10 of those are expected to reach hurricane strength.
Alanis Thames, Nick Madigan and Jesus Jiménez contributed reporting.
