People are asking about power outages in Boca Raton from Tropical Storm Isaac. While there are significant power outages in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties, we have not heard of many outages in Boca Raton generally nor in West Boca.
For the best information on local power outages, see this link: FPL Outages Map for South Florida.
In total there may be as many as 50,000 people without power in the three counties, with about 10,000 in Palm Beach County and a bit more in each of the other counties.
Author: Warren Redlich
Warren Redlich is a real estate agent and an attorney. He focuses on selling homes in West Boca Raton. Call or text Warren at 561-536-3645. Warren is also a tech YouTuber covering Tesla, SpaceX and more. His YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/c/WarrenRedlich/ and he sells Elon Musk related t-shirts and other merchadise at https://ElonBits.com. Warren also publishes videos about politics at https://warrenredlich.locals.com/
Rainfall accumulations in Palm Beach County
While we got a lot of rain here in West Boca, it seems other places got hit worse. As a casual estimate West Boca had maybe 5 inches of rain over the past 24 hours.
There are reports that Wellington to the north has had 14 inches of rain with 4 more inches to come. They are facing serious flooding with canals on the verge of overflowing.
West Palm Beach and other areas closer to the ocean are facing a flash flood warning.
Read more here: BrowardNet on South Florida Water Management District
There is some minor flooding in West Boca. Below is a photo of a section of Glades Road partially underwater.
And near that location, in the background of the next photo you can see the water very close to a row of trees and the road behind them (in Mission Bay).
Last, a video of flooding in Wellington:
Tuesday: West Boca schools, Palm Beach County schools closed
Schools in West Boca and the rest of Palm Beach County will be closed again tomorrow (Tuesday, August 28) due to major and “unprecedented” flooding in the county. One report had 14″ of rain overwhelming Wellington, and flash flood warnings for the eastern parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties.
We have not heard of much flooding in West Boca, at least not yet.
Links:
Palm Beach schools closed
Palm Beach Post flooding story
Monday: Schools closed in Palm Beach County
Schools will be closed Monday in West Boca and the rest of Palm Beach County. The school board made the decision at roughly 1 am due to worsening storm conditions.
At this writing we are hearing heavy rain and high winds outside, just a couple hours before school buses will start picking up students. Looks like a good decision. But maybe a little late? Expect a few complaints.
Palm Beach School District school closing announcement.
Isaac approaches: West Boca
As Tropical Storm Isaac approaches south Florida, many in West Boca are getting active. Early in the week I was in Lowe’s where they were putting out all kinds of hurricane-related displays. There was a big display of generators and multiple displays of 5-gallon gas cans (I bought three). They were selling bottled water near the door – a very good deal with 2 32-packs of 16.9 oz bottles for $7.50. I’m not sure if that deal is still on.
There are reports of people starting to put their hurricane shutters in place. I myself am planning on closing the shutters that require a ladder sometime today. Many people are filling their gas tanks and taking other common sense steps to prepare for a rough few days.
For Republicans and others thinking of heading to Tampa for the Republican National Convention, Isaac may discourage a few. On the current path, West Boca will be getting substantial wind and rain from the storm on Sunday if not earlier. Even the rains last night and today could arguably be attributed to Isaac.
West Boca, like the other western communities in Palm Beach County, is generally safe from any storm surge because we are so far inland. Storm surge mostly affects areas east of I-95. Predictions suggest we will get a lot of rain and some strong winds, but on current models the brunt of the storm should miss us. Nevertheless, those models are far from perfect so people are being extra careful and even stocking up on survival food, should the worst come to the worst.
If conditions get really bad the safest place is probably your home. But if necessary, West Boca Community High School (on the far west end of Glades Road) is an official hurricane shelter. There’s a lot of information on the Palm Beach County hurricane page.
The Home Depot and Publix at 441 and Glades both have generator power, and so does the Lowes at Palmetto and 441, as well as the Publix markets at Sandalfoot, at the Reserve (Clint Moore at 441), and in Loggers Run Plaza (far west Palmetto Park).