//Tropical Storm Eta brings heavy rains to already flooded Florida Keys

Tropical Storm Eta brings heavy rains to already flooded Florida Keys

Beaches and coronavirus testing sites were closed, public transportation shut down and some evacuations in place early on Monday after Tropical Storm Eta made landfall in the Florida Keys, bringing heavy rains to already flooded city streets after leaving scores of dead and more than 100 missing in Mexico and Central America.

Eta is the 28th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, tying a record set in 2005. It is also the fifth to reach major hurricane status, having initially hit Nicaragua as a category 4 hurricane.

The rapid intensification of some of these storms is consistent with the extra energy afforded them by the heating of the air and ocean through human activity, climate scientists have said.

Eta hit land late on Sunday on Lower Matecumbe Key, Florida. The system’s slow speed and heavy rains posed an enormous threat to South Florida, an area already drenched from more than 14in of rain last month. Eta could dump an additional 6in to 12in, forecasters said.

“In some areas, the water isn’t pumping out as fast as it’s coming in,” warned Miami-Dade commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz.

The Miami-Dade county mayor, Carlos Gimenez, said he was in frequent contact with county water officials about the struggle to drain the flooded waters, which has stalled vehicles, whitewashed some intersections and even crept into some homes.

On Sunday night, authorities in Lauderhill, Florida, responded to a report of a car that had driven into a canal. Photos taken by fire units on the scene about 30 miles north of Miami showed rescuers searching high waters near a parking lot.

Firefighters pulled one person from a car and took the patient to a hospital in critical condition, according to a statement from Lauderhill Fire.

The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said a tropical storm warning was in place for the Keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas, including Florida Bay. Storm surge warnings were discontinued early on Monday.

Eta had maximum sustained winds of 65mph and was centered about 45 miles north-north-west of Key West, Florida, and 65 miles south of Naples. It was moving west-north-west at 13mph.

On the forecast track, Eta was expected to move out into the south-eastern Gulf of Mexico and intensify into a hurricane late Monday or Tuesday.

In the Florida Keys, the mayor ordered mandatory evacuations for mobile home parks, campgrounds and RV parks and those in low-lying areas. Several schools districts closed, saying the roads were already too flooded and the winds could be too gusty for buses to transport students. Several shelters also opened in Miami and the Florida Keys.

“Please take this storm seriously,” urged the Palm Beach county emergency management director, Bill Johnson. “Please don’t drive through flooded roadways.”