South Florida is beginning to clean up after being hit by storms that flooded the Fort Lauderdale area, including the local airport which was forced to cancel flights.
The storms dumped two feet of rain in a matter of hours and left travelers stranded through at least 5am Friday and residents calling for help.
Fort Lauderdale officials issued a state of emergency on Wednesday as flooding persisted in parts of the city.
The situation was so dire Wednesday going into Thursday that all classes and school related activities within the Broward County School District were canceled Thursday.
Drone footage from the city shows the extent of the flooding including cars abandoned in the middle of the street and others under water.
South Florida is beginning to clean up after being hit by storms that flooded the Fort Lauderdale area, including the local airport which was forced to cancel flights
Fort Lauderdale officials issued a state of emergency on Wednesday as flooding persisted in parts of the city
A man paddles on the flooded neighborhood after heavy rain in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
People try and save valuables, wading through high flood waters in Fort Lauderdale
The storms dumped two feet of rain in a matter of hours and left travelers stranded through at least 5am Friday and residents calling for help
The closings come as the National Weather Service predicted more rainfall to come, an estimated two to four inches of rain Thursday into Friday.
The Brightline, the area’s high-speed commuter rail, was however restored after being shut down Wednesday evening.
One woman who was driving when she received a flash flood warning told the Associated Press about her experience in the scary situation.
‘The water started rising; I thought I was going to drown,’ Valentine said, adding that she was terrified when she couldn´t open her car door or roll the windows down.
‘Nothing was working. All the lights were going on in my car, so nothing was operating. And I thought, “I´m going to drown,’ she said.
‘I called my parents like, “I´m going to die. Like I´m going to drown. There´s no way for me to get out of this car.” And they couldn´t help me. I called 911 and they told me they couldn´t help me,’ the woman continued.
She eventually forced the door open and got to safety.
Drone footage taken from over the downtown area show cars trapped in several feet of water surrounded by other vehicles and stranded businesses.
Tow truck driver Keith Hickman said he saw abandoned cars ‘floating like boats’ in the streets of Fort Lauderdale.
‘There were hundreds of cars up and down here,’ Hickman said.
‘It was unbelievable. I have never seen cars bumper-boating each other and floating. And a truck would come by and the wake would push the cars into the other cars and they were just floating. I’ve never seen anything like it,’ the truck driver said.
The closings come as the National Weather Service predicted more rainfall to come, an estimated two to four inches of rain Thursday into Friday
Airplanes sit on the runway due to flooding at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood airport Thursday
Residents paddle and walk along a flooded road Thursday
A man walks with his children in the flooded neighborhood after heavy rain in Fort Lauderdale
A Frontier airplane remains grounded as flooding lingers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
In this photo taken with a drone, trucks and a resident on foot make their way through receding floodwaters in the Sailboat Bend neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale
A truck drives on the flooded runway at Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood International Airport, Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Passengers wait for flights to resume after Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood International Airport was closed, Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
In Broward County, where rains started Monday before the heaviest rains arrived Wednesday afternoon, crews worked Thursday to clear drains and fire up pumps to clear standing water.
The Red Cross set up a staging area to help residents whose homes were flooded, providing them with blankets and coffee, officials said.
In the Sistrunk neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale, stalled cars, including Jose Heredia´s BMW sedan, dotted the flooded streets. Heredia, a paralegal, was heading to work Thursday morning when he got stuck.
‘I didn´t think it was that bad. It has never been this bad; I have never seen it to this extent,’ Heredia said. A tow truck company said he faced a wait of five hours or longer.
‘It´s a bad day,’ he said. ‘I should have just stayed at home.’
Nearby, 74-year-old Bobbie Ponder hiked up her dress to push her bicycle the last block to Ray´s Market to get a money order for her internet bill, only find it flooded and closed.
Bags of potato chips and Cheetos floated in a foot of water as workers tried to clean up.
Ponder, who lives in a third-floor apartment, said she didn´t think the flooding would be that bad until she tried to ride her bike. She was trying to keep the flooding in perspective, comparing it against tornadoes that recently hit other states, killing dozens of people.
‘We are blessed – a lot of them died,’ she said.
Passengers wait for flights to resume after Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood International Airport was closed due to flooding
Bahamas bound travelers wait for flights to resume after Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood International Airport was closed on Thursday
A woman wades through high flood waters in a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood on Thursday
Fort Lauderdale City Hall remained closed Thursday with ground-floor flooding and no power. A tunnel carrying U.S. Route 1 under a river and a major street in downtown Fort Lauderdale was also closed, along with some ramps to Interstate 95.
At the airport, enough water had drained by early Thursday to allow people to drive on the upper level – or departures – road to pick up waiting passengers. But the entrance to the lower-level, or arrivals, road remained closed, officials tweeted.
Shawn Bhatti, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said the region received ‘an unprecedented amount’ of rain. The weather service was still confirming totals, but some gauges showed up to 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) of rainfall.
‘For context, within a six hour period the amount that fell is about a 1 in 1,000 chance of happening within a given year,’ Bhatti said. ‘So it´s a very historical type of event.’
