Florida's governor has declared a state of emergency for Broward County after a record amount of rainfall from Wednesday’s storms left parts of the area with massive flooding that could take days or longer to recover from.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis declared the state of emergency Thursday afternoon, noting that rainfall and flooding has "affected and may continue to impact the operational capability of critical infrastructure, including major state and county roadways, airports, hospitals, schools, and other critical infrastructure throughout Broward County."
Preliminary figures from the National Weather Service in Miami showed 25.91 inches of rain fell at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, shattering the old record of 14.59 inches set in 1979.
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Hollywood received 18 inches of rain while Dania Beach got 17.3 inches. One portion of Plantation received over 15 inches of rainfall while Lauderhill and another portion of Plantation had over 10 inches.
Fort Lauderdale also declared a State of Emergency Thursday morning as well as the City of Dania Beach.
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There were no reports of any deaths in Broward County as a result of Wednesday’s weather event.
Fort Lauderdale officials said as of Thursday night, about 600 people were rescued and 38 were taken to shelters.
A flood warning remained in effect for parts of Broward County until 10 a.m. Friday.
Broward County Public Schools closed all schools Thursday and later extended the closure through Friday. All after-school activities, events and extracurricular activities are also canceled. Miami-Dade schools will remain open.
District offices were also shut Thursday due to the flooding as well as the Broward County Courthouse and State Attorney's Office.
"Please stay off the roads," the emergency declaration read in part. "There are various arterial roads with broken-down cars and tow trucks continue removing these to improve traffic flow."
Fort Lauderdale resident Claudia Sanchez said the water moved in fast — she got several inches of water inside her home Wednesday night.
"It hasn’t been fun,” Sanchez said. "It’s stressful, you’re overwhelmed. You’re trying to keep your house clean. You’re trying to keep the water out."
Sanchez said cars and trucks speeding by her home on Southwest 9th Avenue only pushed more water inside Thursday. She put a sheet up on her fence with the words “slow down”.
"If you are driving down 9th Avenue, please slow down — you’re putting water in our homes, it’s not fair,” Sanchez said. “I wouldn’t want that in your house."
There was water inside Rhys Mioos’ house. He packed up his things, called an Uber and left. He’s thankful because he knows this could've turned out worse.
"I'm all good, happy, good to be alive,” Mioos said. "Other people in worse positions than me."
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will remain closed until at least 9 a.m Friday.
The upper-level roadway reopened Thursday morning to allow travelers to pick up stranded passengers.
Several tornado warnings were issued Wednesday, impacting areas such as Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, Davie and Plantation.
Portions of Miami-Dade and Broward had also been under a flood watch until 8 p.m. Thursday for portions of the metro and coastline areas.
Miami International Airport remains open at this time.
