Florida prepares for next round of rainfall after tropical storms swamped southern part of the state
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Forecasters warned Florida residents to prepare for additional flash flooding after a tropical disturbance dumped so much 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rainfall in southern parts of the state, with worsening conditions expected on Friday.
The disorganized storm system moved from the Gulf of Mexico over Florida at about the same time as the start of this year’s hurricane season in early June. are expected to be among the most active in recent history, amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity.
The downpours hit Tuesday and continued into Wednesday, delaying flights at two of the state’s largest airports and leaving vehicles drenched and stalled on some of the region’s lowest streets. On Thursday, travelers tried to salvage their plans as residents cleared rubble before the next rainstorm.
The National Weather Service warned that even smaller amounts of precipitation could hit saturated areas, causing flash flooding Friday before the region has a chance to recover.
“It was like the beginning of a zombie movie,” said Ted Rico, a tow truck driver who spent much of Wednesday evening and Thursday morning helping clear the streets of stuck vehicles. “There are cars everywhere, on sidewalks, in the median, in the middle of the street, with no lights. Just madness, you know. There are cars everywhere.”
Rico, of One Master Trucking Corp., was born and raised in Miami and said he was ready for the emergency.
“You know when it’s coming,” he said. “Every year it just gets worse, and for some reason people just keep going through the puddles.”
Ticket and security lines snaked around a domestic concourse at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Thursday. The travel boards showed that about half of a terminal’s flights had been canceled or postponed.
Bill Carlisle, a Navy Petty Officer First Class, spent his morning trying to catch a flight back to Norfolk, Virginia. He arrived at Miami International Airport around 6:30 a.m., but 90 minutes later he was still in line and realized he couldn’t get his bags checked and through security in time to catch his flight.
“It was a zoo,” said Carlisle, a public affairs specialist. He spoke for himself, not for the Navy. “Nothing against the (airport) employees, they can only do so much.”
He used his phone to book an afternoon flight from Fort Lauderdale. He took a shuttle the 20 miles north, only to find the flight had been canceled. He was heading back to Miami for a 9 p.m. flight, hoping it wouldn’t be canceled due to heavy rain expected later in the day. He was resigned, not angry.
“Just a long day of sitting in airports,” Carlisle said. “This is a bit similar to the government travel course.”
In Hallandale Beach, Alex Demchemko walked his Russian spaniel Lex along the flooded sidewalks near the Airbnb where he has been living after arriving from Russia last month to seek asylum in the US.
“We didn’t leave our apartment, but we had to walk our dog,” Demchemko said. “A lot of flashes, rain, a lot of floating cars and a lot of abandoned cars without drivers, and there was a lot of water on the streets. It was quite catastrophic.”
Thursday morning, Daniela Urrieche, 26, was getting water from her SUV, which became stuck in a flooded street while driving home from work Wednesday.
“In the nine years I’ve lived here, this has been the worst,” she said. “Even during a hurricane, the streets were not as bad as they have been in the last 24 hours.”
The flooding was not limited to the streets. Charlea Johnson spent Wednesday evening at her Hallendale Beach home running water in the sink and toilet.
“The water just started flowing out the back and out the front,” Johnson said.
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Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg and Stephany Matat, in Hallandale Beach, contributed to this story.