measures used to assess potential flood risk for El Portal

First, always be aware of storm and rainfall possibilities ahead

Long term, the National Hurricane Center (NHC)
Next few days, Miami-South Florida Weather Forecast Office National Weather Service

South Florida Water Management System (SFWMD) forecasts

Next few hours, SFWMD radar animation which shows Florida doppler radar over the past four hours, up to about 5 minutes ago.

Second, figure out how much rain there has been recently

Frequently on days with very heavy rain check the C7 canal basin rain amounts since 7 am at this link. To see this find the C7 basin and hover your cursor over it (might have to increase size of image browser with Ctrl +). It will look like this chart.

these are what you will need to keep a record of:

date and time
max rainfall somewhere in basin
average rainfall in basin

C7 canal basin rain amounts since 7 am

Third, look at current chart of the past seven days of water levels at the S27 structure

Go to https://apps.sfwmd.gov/sitestatus/ to see what the high water level in the Little River (C7 canal) has been.

this is what you do at the site:
select EAST COAST tab at top right,
then scroll down to Miami-Dade
Canals C-7 Canal, then click

and wait for chart to be generated

Then check the Biscayne Bay tides. At high tide flood water will not drain from the river.

Little River water level will be blue
line on the lower chart (headwater)

being prepared for flooding in El Portal

When flooding is possible it is important to know the elevation of your home. If you click on the images below you will get a very large map showing elevations** in the west side and east side of El Portal. Elevation in feet is marked with colors and numbers on the maps showing elevation where the number is.

west side

east side

unofficial weather opinions by Hugh Gladwin (email). Do not make decisions based on this web site, get in touch with Miami-Dade Emergency Management and the Village of El Portal.