Flights at two of the state’s largest airports were delayed and vehicles were left stranded in some of the region’s lowest-lying streets as a result of a rare flash flood emergency brought on by a tropical disturbance in Fort Lauderdale, Florida ( AP ).
” Looked like the beginning of a zombie movie,” said Ted Rico, a tow truck driver who spent much of Wednesday evening and Thursday night assisting in clearing the roads of stalled cars. ” There’s vehicles littered everywhere, on top of streets, in the middle, in the middle of the city, no lamps on. Only lunacy, you know. Abandoned cars everyday”.
Rico, of One Master Trucking Corp., was born and raised in Miami and said he was prepared for the incident.
” You know when its coming”, he said. ” Every year, it just keeps getting worse, and for some reason people just keep going through the pools,” says one resident.
Matthew Koziol, MatÃas Ricci, Manuel Ricci and Raúl Fernández traveling by boat through a flooded road caused by heavy rains on North Bay Road in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., Wednesday, June 12, 2024. ( David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP )
On Thursday night, tourists across the region made changes to their ideas. More than 20 inches ( 50 centimeters ) of rain has fallen in some areas of South Florida since Tuesday, with more predicted over the next few days.
Only before noon on Thursday, seat and safety lines whizzed around a local concourse at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The journey board showed about third of that tower’s airlines had been canceled or postponed.
Bill Carlisle, a Navy petty officer primary school, had spent his day trying to catch a trip back to Norfolk, Virginia. He had arrived at Miami International Airport at around 6:30 a.m., but 90 minutes later he was standing in line and realized he could n’t get his bags checked and made it through security in time to board his flight.
” It was a zoo”, said Carlisle, a public affairs professional. He was speaking for himself, never the Navy. ” Nothing against the (airport ) employees — there is only so much they can do”.
But he booked an evening trip from Fort Lauderdale using his cellphone. He took a flight the 20 yards north, only to find that trip had been canceled. He was now heading back to Miami for a 9 p. m. flight, hoping it would n’t get canceled by the heavy rains expected later in the day. He was resigned, never unhappy.
” Only a long time sitting in terminals”, Carlisle said. This is “kind of standard for federal travel,” the author says.
The Florida Panthers were delayed by the weather and subsequent flooding on Wednesday, blocking roads, causing heavy rain, and actually causing delays for their Stanley Cup game against the Edmonton Oilers in Canada.
At roughly the same time as the start of the hurricane season, which is expected to be among the most effective in recent memory, was being pushed across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico by the confused wind method, which was occurring amid concerns that climate change is causing more wind power.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the disruption has not yet reached storm position and only has a passing chance of developing into a tropical method once it crosses Florida into the Atlantic Ocean.
Hector Guifarro climbs around to the front of his vehicle to prevent the flooded street in front of St. Edwards Apartments in Edgewater along N. E. 23rd Street in Miami, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. ( Al Diaz/Miami Herald via AP )
Alex Demchemko, who arrived from Russia last month seeking asylum in the United States, was walking his Soviet terrier Lex along the still-flooded streets near the Airbnb where he’s resided.
” We did n’t come out from our apartment, but we had to walk with our dog”, Demchemko said. ” A lot of lights, raining, a lot of floating vehicles and a lot of quit vehicles without vehicles, and there was a lot of water on the roads. It was kind of catastrophic”.
On Thursday night, Daniela Urrieche, 26, was bailing liquid out of her SUV, which got stuck on a flooded streets as she drove home from work on Wednesday evening.
” In the nine years that I’ve lived here, this has been the worst”, she said. ” Yet in a hurricane, roads were not as awful as it was in the past 24 hours”.
The flooding was n’t limited to the streets. Water was poured into the fall and toilet by Carole Johnson on Wednesday evening at her Hallendale Beach home.
A man makes his way down the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk as heavy rain falls over parts of South Florida on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Hollywood, Fla. ( Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP )
” The water just started flooding in the rear and flood in the front,” Johnson said.
By Wednesday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and politicians in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Miami- Dade County each declared a state of emergency.
It’s already been a moist and stormy week in Florida. In Miami, about 6 inches ( 15 centimeters ) of rain fell Tuesday and 7 inches ( 17 centimeters ) fell in Miami Beach, according to the National Weather Service. Hollywood got about 5 inches ( 12 centimeters ).
More rain was forecast for the rest of the week, with some areas getting another 6 inches ( 15 centimeters ) of rain.
The eastern side of the state, many of which has been in a persistent drought, also got some major snowfall. Nearly 6.5 inches ( 16.5 centimeters ) of rain fell Tuesday at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, the weather service says, and flash flood warnings were in effect in those areas as well.
Prediction for a typically active hurricane season are expected.
Between 17 and 25 named storms are expected in the upcoming months, including up to 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has an 85 % chance of making an above-average hurricane season. An ordinary year has 14 named winds.
A man works to clear debris from a flooded street as heavy rain falls over parts of South Florida on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Hollywood, Fla. ( Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP )
___
This article was written by Associated Press authors Stephany Matat and Curt Anderson of St. Petersburg.
