Travel on Alert as Florida Braces for Heavy Rainfall

The area from the Florida Keys north through Boynton Beach, Fla., which includes both Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, is bracing for heavy rainfall and swells as storm systems set to sweep into the area on Wednesday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Miami forecasts that some areas of Florida’s southeast coast could see “well over” to 10 inches of rainfall, though there is some uncertainty depending on how things shake out over the next 12 hours or so.

The NWS has already issued flood watches for some major metro areas along the coast, including Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Those areas will be under flood watch until at least 10 a.m. on Thursday. The NWS has also issued high surf advisories for those same counties until 7 p.m. EST, warning that “large breaking waves of 6 to 10 feet” are expected.

The storms are expected to move out of Florida by the end of the day on Thursday, moving north out of the area.

As of 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, no cruise lines have made changes to schedules ahead of the storm. There are two ships scheduled to be in the area over the next 24 hours, Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas in Miami, and Celebrity Silhouette in Port Everglades.

No airlines have made changes yet, either—most of the schedule at Miami International and Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport remains on time as of 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International had to close its doors last spring after flooding from a similar-sized storm.