PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Residents and counties in Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast are bracing for flooding as a system could bring heavy, tropical downpours to South Florida for most of next week.
"I've been through this so many times," said WPTV Weather Spotter Merry O'Rourke. "It would be nice not to flood."
O'Rourke is a long-time Jupiter resident who has been dealing with flooding for years at her home.
"When my house flooded 30 years ago, I started putting towels around but then it gets under the foundation and everything just starts floating," she said. "You're helpless at that point."
O'Rourke also said the flood waters make the road in front of her home impassable sometimes.
"It flooded so bad that the water came up to about the middle (of the driveway)," she said. "Didn't flood the back yard, but cars were stalled and a lady came up to my driveway and stayed here until it went down a little."
WPTV's Joel Lopez spoke with First Alert Weather Meteorologist Jennifer Correa, who explained why we're expecting tropical downpours in the coming days.
"So, what's happening is there's moisture coming in from the Caribbean, moisture coming in from the western Gulf of Mexico," she said, "and what will eventually happen is at least two areas of low pressure will develop."
Most of the heavy rain is expected mid-week next week.
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"Come Wednesday, we do expect heavy downpours, tropical downpours we also have a threat for strong thunderstorms and that threat could actually come as early as Monday or Tuesday and with that the flood threat as well."
That moisture could saturate the already-saturated ground through the end of next week.
"Is there anything people can do to avoid that or do they just have to deal with it?" asked Lopez.
"We can't really avoid it, you have to prepare," said Correa. "There's still a lot of uncertainty but one thing for sure is, we are going to get into this very wet pattern."
Indian River, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties told Lopez they just cleared drains ahead of Category 4 Hurricane Helene but counties like Okeechobee plan to have crews on standby in case of flooding.
