Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Eta caused dangerous flooding Monday across Florida’s most densely populated urban areas, stranding cars and swamping entire neighborhoods with fast-rising water that had no place to drain.
The system made landfall in the Florida Keys and posed a serious threat across South Florida, which was already drenched from more than 14 inches of rain last month. Eta could dump an additional 6 to 12 inches, forecasters said.
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"It was far worse than we could’ve ever imagined, and we were prepared,`` said Arbie Walker, a 27-year-old student whose Fort Lauderdale apartment was filled with 5 or 6 inches of water.
“In some areas, the water isn’t pumping out as fast as it’s coming in,” warned Miami Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz said.
Florida officials closed beaches, ports and COVID testing sites, shut down public transportation and urged residents to stay off the street. Several shelters also opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low lying areas.
Broward County also shut down in-person schooling Monday.
At 1 p.m. Monday, Eta’s maximum sustained dropped to 50 mph, down from 65 mph from Sunday night. It was centered 135 miles west-southwest of the Dry Tortugas and moving southwest at 16 mph. Most of the severe weather from the storm is east and north of the center.
The Tropical Storm Warning has been discontinued for all of the Florida peninsula and the Florida Keys except the Dry Tortugas, but interests along the Gulf Coast of Florida should monitor the progress of Eta.
The Hurricane Warning for the Florida Keys and Florida Bay have been replaced with a Tropical Storm Warning. The Tropical Storm Watch has been upgraded to a Tropical Storm Warning for the Florida west coast from Englewood to Anna Maria Island.
Forecasters expect a west to west-southwest motion with some reduction in forward speed later today and tonight. Little overall motion is expected on Tuesday and a slow northward motion is forecast on Wednesday. On the forecast track, the center of Eta will gradually pull away from the Florida Keys and south Florida today and be over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico tonight through Wednesday.
Some strengthening is forecast during the next day or so and Eta is forecast to become a hurricane as it moves over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.
TRACKING THE TROPICS: Interactive map | LIVE CAMS: Key West | Hollywood Beach
The cone is pointed at Jacksonville with possible interaction with the northern part of the state Friday or Saturday based on the NHC forecast track, but the cone of uncertainty the NHC put out Monday morning is nearly 400 miles wide by the end of the week, extending from Pensacola east to Cape Canaveral.
Impacts to Northeast Florida are too early to speculate and the storm may not reach Florida at all due to the erratic history of the models trying to predict the storm that is stuck in weak steering currents. It will spend most of the week in the Gulf off the west coast of Florida before heading northward.
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Tropical Storm #Eta is a lopsided storm, with most of the clouds, rain, and wind located to the north and east of the center. This weather will continue to spread across the #Bahamas and #Florida during the next couple of days. pic.twitter.com/hf86qRrkKt
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) November 8, 2020
Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Saturday for eight counties at the end of the state as Eta approached, urging residents to stock up on supplies. South Florida started emptying ports and a small number of shelters opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low lying areas.
The storm swelled rivers and flooded coastal zones in Cuba, where 25,000 had been evacuated. But there were no reports of deaths.
Guatemala searches for bodies in Eta’s wake
Eta devastated Central America after coming ashore as a Category 4 hurricane Tuesday before weakening into a tropical depression.
Searchers in Guatemala dug through mud and debris looking for an estimated 100 people believed buried by a massive, rain-fueled landslide, as the remnants of Hurricane Eta strengthened early Saturday as the storm churned toward Cuba.
On Friday, search teams in Guatemalan pulled the first bodies from a landslide in San Cristobal Verapaz, but the work was slow and help was trickling in. Teams first had to overcome multiple landslides and deep mud just to reach the site where officials have estimated some 150 homes were devastated.
In neighboring Honduras, 68-year-old María Elena Mejía Guadron died when the brown waters of the Chamelecon river poured into San Pedro Sula’s Planeta neighborhood before dawn Thursday.
Mirian Esperanza Nájera Mejía had fled her home in the dark with her two children and Mejía, her mother. But while she held tight to her children, the current swept away Mejía.
Nájera continued searching desperately for her mother Friday morning. But Mejía’s body was recovered later and taken to the morgue where her relatives identified her.
“When the flooding started, the whole family was leaving the house,” said family friend Nery Solis. “Mirian had her two children and suddenly the current grabbed them and she wasn’t able to get her mom.”
The family transported Mejía’s body to the western city of Copan Friday. Her burial was scheduled for Saturday.
In southern Mexico, across the border from Guatemala, 19 people died as heavy rains attributed to Eta caused mudslides and swelled streams and rivers, according to Chiapas state civil defense official Elías Morales Rodríguez.
The worst incident in Mexico occurred in the mountain township of Chenalho, where 10 people were swept away by a rain-swollen stream; their bodies were later found downstream. Mexico's National Meteorological Service said Eta's “broad circulation is causing intense to torrential rains on the Yucatan peninsula and in southeastern Mexico.”
But the massive slide in Guatemala's central mountains threatened to double Central America's reported death toll in one remote community.
Late Friday, army spokesman Rubén Tellez said soldiers and community members had recovered the first three bodies. Hundreds of tons of mud, rock and debris entombed others.
Rescue teams struggled for hours Friday to reach the site from two different approaches. Smaller landslides blocked highways and decimated the dirt road leading to the community of Queja at the base of the slide. The indigenous community of about 1,200 residents consisted of simple homes of wood and tin roofs clinging to the mountainside.
Tropical Depression Eta was centered 275 miles (445 kilometers) west-southwest of Grand Cayman late Friday. It was moving northeast at 12 mph (19 kph) and had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph).
Hurricane Eta’s arrival in northeast Nicaragua followed days of drenching rain as it crawled toward shore. Its slow, meandering path north through Honduras pushed rivers over their banks and pouring into neighborhoods where families were forced onto rooftops to wait for rescue.
The Honduran government estimates more than 1.6 million have been affected. It said rescues were happening Friday in San Pedro Sula and La Lima, but the need was great and resources limited.
The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday that four U.S. helicopters from the Soto Cano Air Base near Tegucigalpa had flown to San Pedro Sula to participate in rescue operations. U.S. helicopters were also assisting in Panama where authorities confirmed five deaths in the western province of Chiriqui, which borders Costa Rica.