HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - South Florida residents and business owners are dealing with the ripple effects from wild winds and rounds of rain that have triggered a flood watch.
The Wednesday washout has raised concerns in several South Florida communities. The flood watch remains in effect through Thursday evening for coastal and metro areas of Broward and Miami-Dade counties and is likely to be extended.
As for the winds, meteorologists expect them to remain strong and gusty until Saturday morning. They caution marine conditions will remain rough from Broward to Monroe counties.
The inclement weather is expected to dominate forecasts throughout mid-December.
On the Hollywood Broadwalk, barriers remained in place Wednesday afternoon, as passers-by encountered windy conditions along with the rain.
Crews on the Hollywood Beach have spent the past two days getting ready for the heavy precipitation.
The orange dams will hopefully prevent the sand from washing onto the Broadwalk and into the restaurants like it did in November.
“Oh, yeah, we got sand. We had to, like, clean the whole place; it was crazy,” said Julio Hurtado, who works on Hollywood Beach.
City officials said the goal is to keep the sand on the beach.
“I really like what the city is doing. I like that the city has the barriers and stuff like that,” said Tony Pazo who works on Hollywood Beach.
There’s no tool that can keep customers coming when the weather is this stormy. The skies remained gray for the rest of the day, and the customers were few.
“It’s bad weather for us. It makes business like this: empty,” said a woman who works on the Broadwalk.
After the sun set, 7News captured a desolate Hollywood Broadwalk, as the strong winds kept visitors away.
A few snow birds weighed in on the unexpectedly windy conditions.
“We were ready to cancel this morning, and now we’re stuck here for four days until Sunday,” said a man.
It was just as windy down on Miami Beach on Wednesday.
Finnish visitor Thomas Gundstrom said this is not what he was expecting to encounter.
“We came here to see the sun, and we’re from the north, where its minus 30 degrees Celsius, so this clearly – we brought the weather with us,” he said.
The high winds are keeping the 79th Street Causeway Bridge in Miami in the down position for the remainder of the week and into the weekend. The arms have been secured in place to keep them from snapping.
What’s especially worrisome for residents is the heavy rain, especially for those neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale that flooded back in April.
“We certainly don’t want to have damage to the house again. We just got through this,” said a Broward County resident.
Pumps in neighborhoods that need it are in place and ready to go, and so are rescue crews.
Hollywood now has trucks made for the high water.
“They’ll be responding to augment the areas that we’re not able to get to, with our regular response vehicles,” said Hollywood Fire Rescue Lt. David Guernsey.
To make room for the rain, South Florida Water Management crews are lowering water levels where they can.
“On Monday, we started and basically completed lowering the water level in the regional canals,” said South Florida Water Management spokesperson Randy Smith.
It’s weather for the birds, and even they were seen taking cover.
“It’s weird, because it’s supposed to be sunny, you know, but what else can we do?” said the woman who works on the Hollywood Broadwalk. “It’s the weather; we can’t control that.”
“We’re getting a new hairdo with the wind,” said Gundstrom.
Organizers said the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade is still scheduled to take place on Saturday, but they are keeping a close eye on the weather.
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