Flooding is becoming an increasingly common reality across South Florida as rising seas, heavier rainfall and aging infrastructure put pressure on communities across the region.
Experts say the issue is driven by a combination of environmental and infrastructure challenges. South Florida faces three major types of flooding — tidal, rainfall and groundwater — all intensified by sea level rise, low-lying topography and high groundwater levels. Seasonal king tides can push saltwater over seawalls and into neighborhoods, while heavier rainfall can overwhelm aging drainage systems.
According to calculations by Climate Central, about 100,000 homes in Miami-Dade County could be impacted by just two feet of sea level rise, putting roughly $8.7 billion in property value at risk.
For 81-year-old retired oceanographer and former University of Miami professor John Leer, the problem is already hitting close to home. Owning a house on the water had always been a lifelong dream, but worsening flooding in his neighborhood is threatening that reality.
“The flooding that we see in the neighborhood, which is affecting me on a regular basis, is something that I have seen coming for a very long time,” said Leer. “If you were to think of this as a disease, global warming would be the disease, and the flooding we see is a symptom of the disease.”
Leer said flooding in his neighborhood is worsened by an aging seawall located at the corner of 89th Street in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. The wall hasn’t been elevated in a century, and during king tides water spills over it and floods nearby streets. He said he has been reaching out to the county for more than 15 years asking officials to raise the seawall.
“When I first moved here there was almost never water in the street,” Leer said. “But as time has gone, the sea level has risen about 8 inches since I bought the house.”
Engineers and coastal planners say situations like Leer’s are becoming more common across the region.
Danielle Irwin, senior director at the coastal and marine engineering firm Cummins Cederberg and project manager for Bal Harbour’s coastal management program, said flooding has increased throughout her career.
“I’ve been in this industry for 25 years, and we have more flooding,” said Irwin. “It’s not always an issue of feet flooding. Sometimes it’s inches of flooding. And it’s not always because you have low seawalls.”
Irwin said communities are working on solutions, such as beach renourishment projects that add sand to eroding shorelines to help protect coastal areas from sea-level rise and storm surge.
Following the 2025 king tide season, Leer collected videos of the flooding and sent them to the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management, also known as DERM. Officials later scheduled a visit to inspect the neighborhood’s outdated seawall and discuss possible solutions.
For Leer, those solutions cannot come soon enough.
“The awareness is more widespread now,” said Leer. “But awareness and action are two different things, and I’m very painfully aware of the distinction.”
For now, Leer said he is waiting to see whether the county will take action to address the flooding in his neighborhood.
