Storms flood Miami Beach

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Heavy rainfall flooded much of South Beach Thursday, turning parts of Michigan Avenue and Alton Road into rivers.

"It doesn't seem to be getting any better," said Bruce Mazer. "You can't cross the street. It's kind of a nightmare."

Live radar | Thursday forecast |

"They say they're going to make it better and hopefully they do," added Greg Zalken. "This is not even a bad storm. Wait until a hurricane comes."

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On North Bay Road near 21st Street, construction workers nearly missed their meal. The driver of a lunch truck thought twice about making his daily run down the flooded street.

"It's lunch timeout in the rain," said John Meola. "It's been like this all week, all day. We drive down from West Palm Beach and it's just non-stop rain. As you can see, it's a lot of water today."

"I've never seen it like this every," added Juan Iglesias with the Miami Beach Public Works Department. "I've been working here for 16 years and I've never seen it so bad."

A speed bump made of rubber became loose and floated away, but it wasn't needed to slow drivers down.

"It's terrible," Iglesias said of the rain. "I hope it stops soon because it's getting back."

The rain ended up flooding some homes in Miami Beach, including the Conley family's house.

"This is where the water comes in. This is about ankle deep," said Eric Conley. "I woke up this morning to go to work. I step down and there's water all over my room."

"We have water again from this morning and it came back," said Ana Maria. "So this morning and now this evening."

Conley said outside his home, the trash cans were knocked over and everything was floating around.

"Everything is destroyed," said Conley. "My Xbox, my TV."

Sandbags were put up to try and prevent the floodwaters from entering, but just like at one South Beach business, I-95 Exotics Rentals on 18th Street and Purdy Avenue, the water made itself through.

"I think we can rent paddle boards instead because you can see here from all this water that obviously paddle boards are going to be more popular than Ferraris today," said Angela Sieplevicz.

It was the second straight day of heavy rainfall. On Wednesday, the Opa-locka Flea Market remained open despite the standing water, and the Broward Sheriff's Office shut down several roads in Oakland Park.