Water Entered Homes Near Military Trail Sunday Night: 9 to 12 Inches Fell as Flash Flooding Swamped Northeastern Palm Beach County
The warning that began with 3 inches ended the night at 9 to 12 — NWS Miami reported water inside homes near Military Trail, roads at Okeechobee impassable, and a day's rain that mostly fell in three hours.
WEST PALM BEACH — The heaviest rain of Palm Beach County's wet weekend arrived after dark on Sunday, and it arrived fast. The National Weather Service in Miami, which issued a flash flood warning for northeastern Palm Beach County at 5:23 p.m. Sunday and extended it to 11:15 p.m., reported in its 8:52 p.m. update that the public had reported flash flooding in communities near Military Trail, with water entering homes, and that roads near Okeechobee Road and Military Trail were impassable. Between 9 and 12 inches of rain had fallen near Military Trail by then.
The Weather Service's own running posts put the shape of the storm plainly: several unofficial sites in the warning area stood at 10 to 12 inches for the day by 8:03 p.m., most of it in the previous three hours, concentrated in the corridor between the Florida Turnpike, Military Trail and I-95 from Okeechobee Boulevard to the Bee Line Highway. By 8:35 p.m. the heaviest rain was shifting northwest over the Grassy Waters Preserve and western Palm Beach Gardens, with many streets impassable and water inside homes in the warning area, which listed West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Riviera Beach, North Palm Beach, Lake Park, Haverhill, Mangonia Park and the airport area.
Sunday night's totals are the reason Monday's alert clock runs long: the county's Flood Watch now extends to 7 p.m. Monday on ground that is already saturated, and the Local Desk carries the standing warning with it — never drive through flooded roads or around barricades, because the depth on a dark street cannot be judged from the driver's seat. Any county damage assessments or shelter information released Monday will file as a follow-up.
