Leak, Flood and Mold Help in Cutler Bay

Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay sit on low, flat ground on the west shore of Biscayne Bay, laced with canals and neighborhood lakes. Phone South Florida Restoration Co for water damage restoration, flood cleanup or sewage cleanup in either one, and on the call we’ll sort out first whether the water came from the lake, the bay or something inside the house.

When Saga Bay Lake comes over its banks

Cutler Bay recorded 22.68 inches of rain between June 2 and June 9, 2022, which the town called a 100-year storm. Saga Bay took the worst of it, along with parts of Lakes by the Bay and the neighborhood north of Franjo Park. Saga Bay Lake, ringed by nearly 600 homes, overflowed twice that week, CBS News Miami reported, and water reached 4 feet deep in places. Garages flooded, and some needed new drywall. The town brought in five pumps to pull the lake down.

The town names three ways it floods: tide and storm surge, heavy rain that outruns the storm drains, and long rain that overfills the canals. In a lake neighborhood the last two arrive together. Lake and street water isn’t clean, so wet carpet and pad get thrown out, the drywall is trimmed back past the wet area, and the slab is scrubbed ahead of the drying. Each step is laid out on the flood cleanup page.

Bayside homes and Andrew’s storm tide

Hurricane Andrew hit Cutler Ridge in 1992 and left the area in near-total ruin. Its highest storm tide, 16.9 feet, was measured at Burger King’s headquarters on the bay’s western shore, on Old Cutler Road in what is now Palmetto Bay. About a quarter of the homes in Cutler Bay today went up in the 2000s.

Surge brings salt water. Salt soaks into drywall, wood trim and boxes left on the floor, and keeps drawing moisture back out of humid air after the water drains, so salty materials are washed or torn out before the drying equipment is set. See how outside water changes the cleanup.

Septic tanks and the Cutler Drain in Palmetto Bay

Palmetto Bay is mostly houses, about 8 in 10 of them detached, and Miami-Dade’s 2018 count found roughly 5,757 residential parcels in the village on septic. The village says most of its land sits in or near a FEMA flood zone. Rain either soaks into the ground or runs through pipes to the C-100 Cutler Drain canal, and in a big storm the canal and the pipes both fill.

That’s when septic tanks back up. With the drainfield sitting in wet ground, wastewater comes up through the shower or the toilet. Everything soft it touched goes, hard surfaces get disinfected, and the drying comes last. Sewage cleanup covers the rest.

Older Palmetto Bay houses and newer Cutler Bay townhouses

More than half of Palmetto Bay’s houses date to the 1960s or 1970s. Cutler Bay is a mix, with about 3 in 10 homes from the 1950s and 1960s and a quarter from the 2000s, and 14 percent are townhouses. In the older houses, leaks tend to start with a water heater, an old shutoff or a drain line under the slab. In a townhouse, a burst washer hose can soak the party wall and appear next door before it shows in your own unit.

Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay ZIP codes

33189 is nearly all Cutler Bay, and 33190 is about half Cutler Bay. 33158 is nearly all Palmetto Bay, and 33157 takes in parts of Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, Palmetto Estates and West Perrine. Don’t see your ZIP? Call anyway and we’ll check your address.

Describe where the water came from (the lake, the bay side, the street or a drain inside) and whether the house runs on septic.