A long tropical storm ETA moved away from southern Florida on Tuesday, as the storm caused torrential rains that left a luxury sports car driver facing flooded roads.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said ETA is now located off the western coast of Cuba, where it fills the maximum sustained winds of 60 mph as it drifts slowly southward at 5 mph.
“This is a tropical system that’s weakening, and that’s good news,” Fox News chief meteorologist Janice Dean told the “Fox and Friends” program.
Tropical storm floods ETA in southern Florida, a man in critical condition after driving into the canal
The storm will slowly move northward over the next few days and cause another subsidence somewhere along the Gulf Coast.
Eta weakened and turned west. It’s not expected to be a hurricane, but states from Texas to Florida should still watch the path.
“You still have to watch over the next few days as it’s getting very close and potentially making landfall again along the Gulf Coast, anywhere from Texas via the Florida Panhandle, you need to watch this,” Dean said.
The ongoing storm was still sending rain to parts of southern Florida after it flooded the area on Monday.
Additional 1 to 2 inches of rain is possible throughout the day on Tuesdays, bringing the maximum total storm accumulations to 20 inches.
The 28th storm caused torrential rains over Miami and densely populated neighborhoods along the coast.
Tropical storm ETA causes landfall in South Florida
Drivers have struggled to navigate flooded streets in Miami, with motorists reporting dozens of disrupted service calls.
A Lamborghini driver was seen on Sunday night as the storm made landfall driving the luxury sports car down the flooded streets.
“Lamborghini or the submarine?” One man commented After the car is detected on WSVN-TV wading in the water. Waves were seen covering the cover and then surrounding the sides as the yellow car speeded through the flood waters.
The torrential floods caused vehicles to stop and leak into homes and turned residential streets into channels. Images from a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue drone show neighborhoods flooded by the storm.
I’ve been here 25 years. A woman in West Fort Lauderdale told WSVN-TV, “I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life before. “Twenty-five years of living in Melrose, and that’s what we’re getting. No help.”
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantales described the flood as “a 100-year rain event”, in contrast to the torrential tropical rain that is common in South Florida during the summer.
“Once the earth is saturated, there is nowhere the water will go,” Trantales said.
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There was no immediate word on deaths in Florida, but firefighters pulled a person from a car that had entered a canal on Sunday night in Lauderhill, north of Miami. The authorities said that the patient was taken to hospital in critical condition.
“It’s just too bad. In the last 20 years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Tito Carvallo, the owner of a car stereo company in Fort Lauderdale, told the AP. He estimated that the water was 3 feet deep in places.
Officials said torrential rains also damaged one of the state’s largest COVID-19 testing sites, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami-Dade County.
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The site was expected to close until Wednesday or Thursday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Twitter that Florida residents should be watching for the storm over the coming days.
“While this storm has moved outward, it is still bringing dangerous conditions to the Gulf Coast this weekend,” chirp.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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