Local News

MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ― Friday's torrential downpour and massive flooding on South Beach prompted dozens of families to voluntarily evacuate a high-rise condominium complex at 10th Street and West Avenue.

CBS4 was at the south tower of the Mirador Condominium complex as condominium owners and their families and friends moved out. Cradling his young son, Saso Gegovski told us, "We don't have running water here. We do have electricity. But we have no working elevator and the air conditioning is not working."

Gegovski said he lost his utilities on Saturday morning. Neide Miranda, who was visiting from Boston and was staying in the 10th floor condo with Gegovski and his wife, said, "It's been three days, with no a/c and no water. I feel, you know, it's horrible. I'm leaving today. I never seen anything like that. It was worse than hurricane season."

The Miami-Dade Health Department sent out an inspector and has issued a boil water order for residents of this building after the water was restored Monday evening. If you're going to drink water out of the tap, you must boil it first to kill any harmful organisms.

Gegovski told us he and his family were moving to a local hotel and would stay away until all the problems were resolved.

At the north tower of the complex, owners told us they had been without power for 30 hours this weekend. Tatania Rodriguez lives on the 8th floor and told us, "My car was a total loss." Flood waters inundated the building's transformer, causing the loss of electricity. "It was at least two feet high," said the Building's chief engineer, Mario Lara, of the water.

Florida Power and Light spokesman Mayco Villafana told us at the height of the storm on Friday, 15,802 customers lost power, most of them in Miami Beach and Miami. He said almost all of that power was restored by late Saturday.

By 5 p.m. Monday, CBS4 News learned from three different owners that they had running water again and the elevators were also working. The air conditioning system is still not on, but owners have also heard that crews were working on that. One owner, said, "The only thing we need now, other than the air conditioning, is hot water."

Miami Beach was a sea of tow trucks on Monday. Hundreds of cars and trucks were damaged by the flood waters; owners were not able to start many of them.

Along busy Alton Road, between 8th and 11th Streets, many store owners and managers told us they had at least two feet of water inside their businesses.

"It's the worst it's ever been," said Sylvano Carrara, who has run Sylvano's restaurant for the past four years. "I was thinking, will I have a business tomorrow? Alton Road was like a river and we had a river inside our restaurant." He was forced to shut down for most of Saturday.

Carrara did not have flood insurance. "It would have cost me $18,000 a year," he said, "and that was far too much to spend." He said the flooding caused about $9,000 to equipment and his computers.

Waitress Jeanne Jalladeau shows us cell phone photos of the flooding outside her restaurant. "It was very unbelievable," she said.

Nearby at Amato Cleaners, owner Ignazio Amato told us that cars driving down Alton Road during the storm pushed a few feet of water into his store. "It surprised me," said Amato. "I've been here 10 years and I have never seen anything like this."

At Dewey's Tavern on Alton Road, manager Kevin Ford said the flood waters also inundated his business. "It came up in just two hours to my knees," said Ford.  "It was insane."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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