South Florida's 'historic' rain swamps Miami-Dade County transit as flooding, debris disrupt routes

MIAMI — Miami-Dade County’s transit system struggled to have a normal morning on Thursday as the overnight deluge in South Florida left the Metromover system disabled, Metrorail trains slowed by debris and buses dodging flooded streets.

“Due to historic rain fall in Miami-Dade County, all modes of transportation including Metrobus, Metromover, Metrorail and STS are experiencing delays,” the transit system said in an 8:17 a.m. social media post. STS is the name for automobiles used to pick up people with disabilities that prevent them from using county transit. “Please allow for extra travel time. More information to follow.”

Before dawn, the Department of Transportation and Public Works announced the entire Metromover system was offline. The 4:55 a.m. announcement said bus shuttles would be running between stations that are popular commuting hubs in downtown Miami and the Brickell Avenue district.

Metromover down after power issues

A transit spokesperson said before 9 a.m. that Metromover was down due to electrical outages at the automated train system. The county’s transit app said debris on the elevated tracks was an issue as well. The outage lasted for hours, with the transit system announcing shortly before 1 p.m. that the stations were ready for passengers again. “The Metromover system has resumed operations following the resolution of a power-related technical issue by our team,” the announcement read.

With early estimates of more than eight inches of rain overnight, the county’s bus fleet faced flooded streets and parking lots even after the downpours had halted in the morning. The county said all bus routes were experiencing some delays. Buses were diverted entirely from the Palmetto Metrorail station due to flooding.

Metrorail, bus delays after Miami rain

Metrorail faced delays, too, in some sections of the 25-mile system. With debris on some tracks, Metrorail had to limit trains to one set of tracks while workers cleared the other in the dual-track system. But those problems appeared to be short-lived. After 9 a.m., the county said Metrorail service had resumed normal operations with some remaining delays.