outside. I bumped rain chances up to 50, so no but hit miss storms. All right. Sounds good.
So much fast and heavy rains
have been just wreaking havoc
all south Florida, the rainy
season. Boy, it is here. And we
saw the impact last week in
Little Havana and then we did
streets and sidewalks flooded,
just minutes exacerbated by the
enormous amount of litter
clogging the storm drains.
Little Havana’s big trash
problem is tonight don’t trash
our treasure. Just blocks from
the live salsa beats clickety
clack, domino tiles and the
tours sidewalks of with your is
the real Little Havana and it’s
a big trouble it’s a constant
battle in the neighborhood two
to fight the dumping and the
trash. Rosa Fernandez has lived
here all her life. She says the
streets litter and
indiscriminate dumping have
never been this bad. Shocking to
think that a neighborhood in the
city of Miami still has this
this situation and it’s dire.
Last week’s torrential quickly
flooded many Havana streets cars
businesses residences over come
by waves of trash water. And
just one look at the garbage
clogged stormwater inlets catch
basins along North West Ninth
Avenue tells you you need to
know. Oh, my God. These Catch
basins are supposed to collect
solids to keep debris from
flowing into the city.
Stormwater system. But when
they’re not cleaned, they look
like this. Look I’ve gone there.
They’re full of trash, and the
stormwater has nowhere go but
back out the streets. Even we
don’t have biblical. Just a
little rain. It floods. What
cannot opponent pick as a hint
that cathedral are a. Look at
this. Look I was God Guzman has
had enough every time it rains,
he comes out with a large pry
bar to try and unclog the inlets
and keep the streets from
flooding. He says he’s sick of
calling City for help. I know
the water. Now I love you the
way strategy. My report got me
some important work at the only
Cardinal Gate because I let you
know we know why in floods we
have floods. Because all of our
drain our drainage system is
clogged with litter. It’s
clogged. Community leader Marvin
Tapia says he’s been fighting
this battle for years. It’s not
a surprise that you can’t get
through Little Havana. You’re
going to be in two or three feet
of water. And it’s not just two
or three feet of water. We’re
talking garbage and a lot of
that garbage still makes it into
the stormwater system that dumps
out into our rivers and canals.
That all outflow into Biscayne
Bay is. Four of our bay after a
rainstorm. Right now our state
law dictates that cities clean
out their catch basins once
every five years. But In a
highly urbanized area like
Little Havana, as you can see,
obvious that’s not nearly
frequently. In fact, according
to the city of Miami’s annual
stormwater report from 2020, the
last published on Florida’s DEP
website of the city’s 28,000
catch basins, only 24% of them
were cleaned out calendar year.
Is that sufficient you think?
No, it’s absurd. We need to
increase that and we need to get
the funding for that. Freshman
City of Miami Commissioner
Sabina Cobo sponsored a
resolution adopted last month
that allocates funding to the
city’s public works department
to pay for two more employees
and new equipment, increasing
the amount of bacon that we
have. It’s going to be key for
us to move forward. It’s a start
. The city’s solid waste
department is also the frequency
of street sweeping this to at
least once a week, minimum or
weekly basis order to make it
major and stuff like that. For
the side streets, stuff like
that. We don’t, you know, we
don’t go into South Street, but
those side streets like
Northwest Ninth Avenue are where
many a little Havana’s 85,000
residents live and work and with
rainy season here cuts flooding
is a big concern. This is where
I was born and raised and to me
this is personal to me this is
home and I want to be better I’m
proud to be a Little Havana. I
love to live here. Breaks my
heart to see this. We need help
. They need help. The city of
Miami’s Public Works Department
has been mandated to put
together plan to address this
issue. Meantime, Miami-Dade
County taking steps to create
oversight of stormwater
management of all municipalities
in county. Right now, it’s up to
each to manage its stormwater
and many are falling short. If
you’d like to learn more about
today’s story or find the beach
cleanup near you, scan the QR
code right there. Will take you
straight to the don’t trash. Our