MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – People living in Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale prepared for tidal flooding Friday.
South Florida is part of October's high tides, which surprised even veteran east siders.
"It has to do with the lunar cycle," said Eric Carpenter, Director of Miami Beach Public Works. "The water patterns, you have offshore winds pushing water back in the bay a little bit."
Size matters when you're talking tides from Miami Beach to Fort Lauderdale.
"Because of sea level rise kind of occurring overtime now, we're starting to notice this perhaps more and more, and it's affecting us more and more," said Ft. Lauderdale Asst. City Manager Susanna Torriente.
The City of Fort Lauderdale put out an e-blast to residents Friday as a heads up that Sunday morning at 10:37 a.m. begins the autumn high tide cycle, that last year swept up and crumbled A1A along the beach and veiled the banks where streets end and canals begin.
Although there is currently an emergency fix along A1A, a permanent solution is in the design phase.
In Fort Lauderdale's low lying neighborhoods, the city installed backflow protectors. It keeps the bay from coming up through storm drains.
On sometimes submerged South Beach, a pumping system is part of a construction project aimed at keeping life on land above the rising waters.
"We're designing for a 20-year horizon based on what the anticipated sea levels are going to be," said Carpenter.
"There are different things we can do overtime with the knowledge that we have," said Torriente.
For a link to NOAA's daily tide predictor calendar, click here.