Storm dumps inches of rain on Miami Beach

MIAMI, June 5 (UPI) -- A storm that dumped more than half a foot of rain Friday on Miami Beach flooded the nightclub in the Fontainebleau Hotel and forced the Eden Roc to close.

The combination of 7 to 9 inches of rain, wind and lightning brought power outages and traffic delays around the region, The Miami Herald reported. Drivers were trapped in traffic for hours when part of the Venetian Causeway between Miami Beach and Miami was closed.

Mark Pavlat, a chemical salesman from the New York area, had to leave the Eden Roc when the hotel lost power. He said earlier he had been on a catamaran trip when the storm came up.

"We noticed you couldn't see Miami anymore," Pavlat said. "Then ... we saw two waterspouts."

Some passengers used cell phones to make goodbye calls to spouses and family members. But the vessel eventually got safely to the dock.

At the Fontainebleau, a leak developed into an 8-foot hole in the ceiling with water coming in "like a waterfall," as one guest put it.

There were significant delays at the airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Lightning hit a plane on the ground at Fort Lauderdale.