MIAMI — The center of Potential Tropical Cyclone One was still poorly defined as Floridians woke up Saturday morning, but that didn't stop it from drenching the southern part of the state.
The storm system dropped heavy rain in the Miami area.
CBS Miami says the downtown region is grappling with drainage concerns fueled by rising water levels in the river and bay, along with fears about trash clogging pipes.
Video showed several cars stuck in flash flood waters in downtown Miami.
Firefighters confirmed they had at least six different high water vehicles out responding to all the reports of people needing to be rescued from their cars. The situation prompted a reminder from the city, which urged people not to drive or walk through standing water.
As the saying goes, "turn around, don't drown."
But that didn't stop people from trying to drive through the water anyway. Social media videos showed cars trying to get through several inches of flooding as onlookers watched in disbelief.
Former 10 Tampa Bay reporter Jonathan Petramala, who now runs Climate Productions LLC, tweeted video of a woman in the Brickell neighborhood climbing out a sunroof before trying to push a car out of knee-deep water.
Nearby, a corvette drove through water that reached almost the top of its tires.
There appeared to be a never-ending line of cars trying to make their way through flood waters as the punishing rain came down. It's not yet clear if anyone was injured.
"Just an absolute disaster," Petramala told his viewers of the situation in Miami. "I saw things I'd never seen before."
Emmy award-winning independent photojournalist and weather chaser Brandon Clement documented, in a video, how one car after another got stuck in downtown Miami.
CBS Miami said flood waters were also seen rising around mobile homes in Hialeah.
Meteorologists now expect Potential Tropical Cyclone One to become a tropical storm off the east coast of Florida around Saturday night and strengthen a bit through Monday as it moves away from Florida and out over the western Atlantic Ocean. Click here for the latest forecast.
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