Global Courant 2023-04-14 09:50:28
The Fort Lauderdale airport remained closed for a second day on Thursday after more than two feet of rain fell on the South Florida city, flooding roads, submerging cars and stranding travelers, officials said.
“The amount of precipitation is unprecedented,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said Thursday.
And it wasn’t over yet. Another downpour on Thursday caused roads that were passable to be flooded, the city government said, and residents were urged to stay off the roads.
An extra 2 to 3 inches of rain fell Thursday, the National Weather Service said.
There have been 900 calls to the city’s fire department, including rescue efforts, Trantalis said earlier in the day, but no deaths have been reported. About 600 people were taken to shelters, the city said.
Drone video broadcast by NBCMiami showed abandoned cars lying around downtown even after the water receded.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, which ceased operations on Wednesday after exits, entrances and runways were flooded, will remain closed until 9 a.m. Friday for runways to be repaired and inspections conducted. said the airport.
Parts of the city of 180,000 saw 25.91 inches of rain at 9 a.m. Thursday, while nearby Dania Beach got more than 17 inches and Hollywood got just over 18 inches, according to the National Weather Servicealthough the reports were preliminary.
Sleeping at the airport was the hardest part for Jessica Pfau of Baltimore, who was stranded overnight with her four children, her husband and the children’s grandfather.
“I think we slept maybe four hours and it was freezing cold,” she said. On Thursday they tried to get hold of a rental car.
Planes are in front of their gates.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday declared a state of emergency for Broward County, where Fort Lauderdale is located, and the county government also declared a local emergency.
Broward County Public Schools canceled classes on Thursday and said schools would also be closed on Friday. Staff were busy repairing facilities on Thursday, but some areas were inaccessible, the district said.
“To date, we have been able to determine preliminary $2 million in damage to our schools,” said Valerie Wanza, acting chief of staff for the school district, at a briefing. “A lot of that is due to flooding.”
The heavy rainfall was caused by a slow-moving front system, combined with a low-pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico, the weather service reports. said Thursday. That led to prolonged periods of very heavy rainfall, with the heaviest in Broward County, it said.
There were also two tornadoes in Broward County on Wednesday. Both were short-lived and rated EF0, or the lowest on the Enhanced Fujita scale, according to the weather service.
One happened around 3:30 p.m. and caused minimal damage, possibly just at treetop level, and the second hit just south of the Fort Lauderdale airport around 9:40 p.m. the agency said.
The torrential downpour had passed Thursday night, but a flood warning for the Fort Lauderdale area remained until 8 a.m. Friday morning, as numerous roads remained inundated, the weather service said.
