Global Courant 2023-04-13 08:49:57
Heavy rain flooded Florida roads on Wednesday, closing the Fort Lauderdale airport until Thursday and stranding travelers, forecasters and officials said.
Radar estimates showed 11 to 12 inches of rain in the Fort Lauderdale area, with up to 17 inches closer to the coast, Chuck Caracozza, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said Wednesday night — and the rain continued to fall.
A flash flood emergency has been declared for areas near Fort Lauderdale and Dania Beach until 2 a.m. Thursday.
“It’s extremely dangerous here around Fort Lauderdale,” Caracozza said. “People should avoid the roads and stay off the roads.”
By 11 p.m., heavy rainfall over Fort Lauderdale eased, but flash flooding continued until 2 a.m., the weather service said.
A motorcyclist passes a car stopped on a flooded road in Dania Beach, Fla., on Wednesday.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport said it would be closed until noon on Thursday. Entry and exit roads were flooded and stalled vehicles were removed from the upper floors.
“The roads, you can’t get in or out, so there’s a whole airport full of people who are just held hostage here,” Wendy Sachs, who had been stranded at the airport since 3 p.m., said around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. .
Sachs’ flight to Newark, New Jersey, never left. She described the floods as “biblical” and said everyone was trying to get a rental car – not to leave right away, as floods made that impossible, but just to save one.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Sachs, who grew up in Miami.
Video broadcast by NBCMiami showed flooding in an airport parking garage and cars driving through flooded streets in Dania Beach, a town just south of Fort Lauderdale.
“We are asking that you stay off the roads until some of this water clears up,” Fort Lauderdale Fire Chief Stephen Gollan told residents in a video the city manager shared Wednesday. Cars get stuck, he said.
Passenger train service between Miami and Fort Lauderdale was suspended, provider Brightline said.
The flash flood emergency for Fort Lauderdale and other parts of Broward County was originally scheduled to end at 11 p.m., but was extended to 2 a.m.
Broward County Public Schools said Due to the weather, schools would be closed on Thursday.
The county sheriff’s office tweeted that a regional communications center was inundated with 911 calls about the rain, urging people to save that number for emergencies.
The weather service had predicted heavy rain in parts of Florida on Wednesday due to a rising warm front. Rain and wind are expected to move into the central Gulf Coast on Thursday.
