Winds escalate days of flooding described as worst in decades
ABOVE: Waves crash into the Boynton Inlet lifeguard stand on Oct. 27. BELOW: Dimitriy Khaydarshin watches Tobin Cultrera wade through floodwaters on Oct. 25 on Palm Drive in Briny Breezes. Photos by Tim Stepien and Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Related: Along the Coast: High bacterial levels prompt advisories against swimming
By Valerie Gordon
King tides described by longtime residents and officials as the worst in nearly two decades flooded coastal communities in south Palm Beach County in late October, stranding vehicles, disrupting businesses and leaving about 20 homes in Briny Breezes without power for several hours.
Strong winds and high surf — with gusts up to 40 mph and surf heights of 10 to 12 feet forecast by the National Weather Service — compounded the damage, severely eroding beaches and damaging public beach access points.
In Manalapan, where town officials declared a state of emergency on Oct. 25, Police Chief Jeff Rasor estimated water reached 3½ to 4 feet deep in the hardest-hit areas along East Ocean Avenue extending to State Road A1A near Plaza del Mar and the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa.
“I would say this is the highest king tide,” Rasor said. “I have one officer who has been with Manalapan 20 years who’s never seen it like this.”
Winds gusting up to 40 mph blast the north jetty of the Boynton Inlet.
Flooding began Oct. 25 and worsened through Oct. 27, leaving approximately 15 cars stranded. Town officials updated residents through the town’s CodeRED alert system and maintained daily road closures along East Ocean Avenue and South Ocean Boulevard twice daily for several hours around high tide, Rasor said.
Manalapan’s beach also sustained severe erosion, with Rasor estimating half of the town’s beach had been washed away.
“The beach is severely, severely impacted. I’ve never seen it like this,” Rasor said. “It’s going to take a while to rebuild.”
A confluence of factors impacted the region: the seasonally higher king tides, heavy rainfall and a low-pressure system stalled over the Bahamas that “pushed more water than usual into the system, prolonging the time it takes for high tide to recede,” Delray Beach spokesperson Gina Carter said.
A preliminary reading at Lake Worth Pier reached 2.7 feet above the typical daily high-tide level on Oct. 27, according to the NWS, exceeding the previous record set there during Hurricane Nicole in 2022.
Visitors Dan and Traci Allen wade through water that reached thigh-deep in spots on George Bush Boulevard in Delray Beach in late October.
Power outage in Briny
On Palm Drive in Briny Breezes, residents reported “thigh-high” water upon initial flooding on Oct. 25, which rose higher in the days that followed, interrupting power to some homes, according to Michael Gallacher, general manager of Briny Breezes Inc. co-op.
FPL confirmed the outage affected 23 customers in Briny Breezes after tidal flooding damaged electrical equipment. Crews replaced the damaged equipment and elevated the transformer to reduce the risk of future flood-related outages, the company said.
“Restoration efforts took longer than usual because high water levels made it difficult for crews to safely access the equipment and complete repairs,” FPL said in a written statement.
Private dune crossovers in the 5900 block of Old Ocean Boulevard lie in ruins in Ocean Ridge. At least a dozen residential and town-owned beach access points were closed because of wave damage during the last week in October.
Beach crossovers damaged
Ocean Ridge Police Chief Scott McClure said many longtime residents described the flooding as “the worst they had seen in their lifetimes.”
The hardest-hit areas included Island Drive, Sabal Island Drive, Inlet Cay Drive, portions of North Ocean Boulevard, Coconut Lane, East Ocean Avenue, Hudson Avenue, Engle Drive and Harbour Drive North.
Additionally, decks and stairs at three of the town’s seven public beach crossovers — Corrine, Thompson and Porter — had extensive damage and remain closed with no estimated reopening date or repair costs, McClure said.
Municipal officials across Highland Beach, South Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Boynton Beach also reported significant flooding on roads and other low-lying areas, reaching up to 6 inches in Boca Raton, according to city spokeswoman Ileana Olmsted.
Highland Beach’s fire department received one report of a vehicle requiring towing, while South Palm Beach experienced temporary cable and streetlight outages along A1A “despite repeated repairs,” Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said.
In Delray Beach, flooding affected the barrier island area of Andrews Avenue near Beach Drive and Seaspray Avenue, as well as Marine Way along the western banks of the Intracoastal Waterway south of Atlantic Avenue, where tidal flooding has been a recurring problem.
Carter said the pumps at the Beach Drive Stormwater Pump Station were not operating properly, causing the issue on Andrews, but once repairs were made the water went down “relatively quickly.”
On Marine Way, property owner Eugenia Deponte said flooding damaged her landscaping, pool equipment and air-conditioning units. She criticized the city for what she described as nine years of delays in moving forward with a previously approved improvement project that she said received a $10 million commitment from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“This situation cannot continue,” Deponte wrote.
Carter said the sea wall project is moving forward, with the contractor and city staff negotiating a guaranteed maximum price for the project that is expected to be on the City Commission’s Nov. 17 meeting agenda for a vote.
“If approved, construction will begin soon after,” Carter said in her email response to The Coastal Star.
In Lantana, Mayor Karen Lythgoe said the twice-daily, hours-long closures of East Ocean Avenue at the Intracoastal were exacerbated by a malfunction at the Lake Worth Beach bridge on Oct. 27, forcing motorists farther north to the Southern Boulevard bridge to cross onto the island.
Flooding also affected Hypoluxo Island. Town alerts described Beach Curve, Barefoot Lane and Southeast Atlantic Drive as “underwater,” Lythgoe said.
In Gulf Stream, several sea wall breaches sent debris into residential yards and town streets, and there was flooding near Polo Drive and Old School Road. The flooding was worsened by an electrical wiring issue that reduced the capacity of the town’s stormwater drainage pumps, according to Gulf Stream Town Manager Trey Nazzaro.
The town brought in a temporary pump for the Old School Road/ Polo Drive intersection. Electrical repairs are scheduled with officials aiming to restore the drainage system to full capacity before the next round of king tides in November.
The entire Boynton Beach Marina, including the Banana Boat (upper right) and Two Georges (upper left) restaurants, experienced twice-a-day flooding that inundated the parking lots. The conditions also cut business opportunities for the Sea Mist III drift fishing boat.
Businesses affected
The repeated closures of Boynton Beach’s East Ocean Avenue near the Intracoastal carried an estimated 50% loss in business per day for some area businesses, Banana Boat and Prime Catch restaurant owner Luke Therien said. McClure said the road had to be shut down beginning Oct. 26 for about three hours, twice daily.
Although Banana Boat remained open and sustained no flood damage — its parking lot was underwater at times — Therien called for drainage improvements along East Ocean and Southeast Sixth Street and higher sea walls in the area.
“There is a finger-pointing between the City and the D.O.T. as to who is going to pay, and what priority they want to assign in order to resolve the problem for the future,” he wrote in an email to The Coastal Star.
Boynton Beach Deputy City Manager Andrew Mack told The Coastal Star in an email that his city’s Community Redevelopment Agency has funded the design phase for improvements to the affected area, adding that the city maintains a “strong working relationship” with Therien and is coordinating with the Florida Department of Transportation.
“The City remains committed to working collaboratively with all parties to address flooding concerns due to king tides in this area,” the city said in a follow-up.
Guillermo Canedo, FDOT District 4 communications manager, did not respond to requests for comment as of Oct. 30.
“Communities all along South Florida’s coast face the same challenge,” Mack wrote. “When king tides combine with onshore winds and heavy rain, water can rise above what much of our region’s infrastructure was built to handle.”
The Lantana marina looked more like a water park, as water at least 15 inches deep filled the area on multiple days.
Some spots see relief
Recent infrastructure improvements helped limit impacts in some places.
Highland Beach officials credited drainage improvements in an $8.3 million A1A road project with helping to reduce flooding, though it still left many stretches of the town’s A1A pathway underwater even after the tides had receded. The work included improvements to roadside swales to help water soak into the ground.
In Boca Raton, Olmsted wrote that recent reconstruction of the Wavecrest sea wall eliminated seawater intrusion on the eastern side of Por La Mar, adding that the city also purchased a pump capable of moving more than 1,500 gallons per minute for deployment if flooding made the roadway impassable.
In Lantana, Lythgoe said the town recently launched a pilot drainage improvement project on the southeast side of Hypoluxo Island, incorporating grading and pumps to address recurring flooding in low-lying neighborhoods. In recent years, the town also relocated several storm drains from private property after maintenance access became an issue.
Despite those efforts, Lythgoe said the town remains vulnerable during extreme high tides because elevated water levels in the Intracoastal prevent stormwater from draining.
“There’s not a whole lot we can do when the stormwater drains into the Intracoastal. So, until the tides go down, there’s nowhere for that water to go,” she said.
Briny Breezes has begun planning drainage and sea wall improvements to reduce future tidal flooding. The co-op’s corporate board in March also approved allowing future homes to be elevated up to 10 feet above ground atop concrete pilings, with parking underneath, at its 242 home sites west of A1A.
Gulf Stream has already undertaken drainage upgrades through its Core Area Improvements project, including regraded roads, additional drainage structures and an outfall pipe enlarged from 24 to 48 inches at Banyan Road and Polo Drive, according to the town’s project website. However, the full benefit of the project was not realized because of the wiring issues with the pumps, Nazzaro said.
Ocean Ridge approved $250,000 in June for a “master planning initiative for resiliency,” Town Manager Michelle Heiser said, targeting work on several of the town’s streets that were hardest hit — including Hudson Avenue and Coconut Lane — as part of its capital improvement plan.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has also approved plans for a new sea wall at Hudson Avenue, she said.
South Palm Beach is developing a corridor master plan to address recurring A1A challenges, including flooding, with a public workshop set for 6 p.m. Nov. 12 at Town Hall to discuss potential remedies.
Titcomb attributed the recent flooding in part to high water levels in the Intracoastal, which prevented the town’s drainage system from discharging into it.
Mary Thurwachter, Rich Pollack, Henry Fitzgerald and Larry Barszewski contributed to this story.
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