Lincoln Bay Towers: South Beach Seniors Stranded by Flooded Elevators

Bobby Duke, 87, had not left his unit at Lincoln Bay Towers in South Beach for more than a week. The elevators that serve his floor sat dead after floodwater swamped the building on September 27, according to the Miami Herald’s October 6 report.

Why it matters

Lincoln Bay Towers, at 1450 Lincoln Road, is a 10-story condominium, per the Herald, built in 1969 according to county appraiser records. The flood submerged the parking lot, garage, pump station, lower lobby and elevators. Both cars went down. One returned to service Monday afternoon, October 5. The other stayed dark.

Nancy Duke, the association president and Bobby’s wife, told the Herald: “We have people buying groceries for their neighbors because they can’t get out.” The association says it was the worst flooding the building has seen in a decade, worse than Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Across the street, the four-story Sunshine Bay Condominiums lost power to the whole building, its elevators and its stormwater pump when water poured into the garage. Residents bought their own temporary pump. A vehicle count: one car, two Vespas and a motorcycle were lost.

The numbers

• Flood date: September 27, 2026.
• Building: 10 stories, two elevators, built 1969.
• Outage: about nine days for the first car, longer for the second.
• Equipment: crews hauled out ruined components weighing roughly 200 pounds, damaged by saltwater and sand.

The Herald did not report repair costs or an assessment. Those figures are the open question for owners.

What’s next

Sandbagging is planned, but permanent floodproofing is not in place at Lincoln Bay. At Sunshine Bay, the West Avenue drainage project is expected to finish next year, so another king tide this season would meet the same exposure.

For buyers and lenders, older bayside condos now carry a second bill beyond structural reserves under Florida’s SB 4-D rules: raising or protecting elevator pits, pumps and electrical gear. We will request the association’s reserve and repair filings. See our South Florida coverage for related building-safety stories.