‘There was no warning’: South Florida emerges after life-threatening flash flooding

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — As the waterline rose toward the front door of his home in Fort Lauderdale's Edgewood community, Paul Guerrero, 58, wasn't worried yet. He, his wife and his 31-year-old son placed towels under their doors, just in case.

But their meager effort was no match for the record-breaking downpour that drenched Fort Lauderdale Wednesday. They had seen rain like this before. They had not seen this.

On Thursday Guerrero and his family joined thousands of area residents taking stock of the damage left behind after nearly 26 inches of rain that fell in a period of less than seven hours, rain that forced stranded drivers to abandon their cars, rescuers to offer assistance from boats, and airports, courts and schools to close.

Guerrero, who has lived on the 1000 block of Southwest 29th Street for 26 years, watched the water infiltrate his home. He worried for his eight cats, two dogs, two turtles and an African Grey parrot as the water came in under the door, through the windows, through the very walls, until there was almost 3 feet in the house.

Finally, about 10 a.m., a stranger in a "swamp buggie" came to his door and asked if he needed help, Guerrero accepted.

He was able to fit his family, including his brother-in-law, all eight cats and the two dogs onto the buggie, but had to leave the two turtles and the parrot, hoping they'll stay safe until he gets back.

At the nearby Southland Shopping Center, the Red Cross set up a staging area. Guerrero said he'd never seen anything like it.

Major roadways and intersections were impassable, to say nothing of the side roads people would normally use as detours. One man was even spotted swimming across a downtown Fort Lauderdale street as South Florida started to emerge from what one city is calling a 50-year rain event.

The rainfall appears to have broken a Florida daily record set for a single location (23.28 inches observed in Key West, Florida, back on Nov. 11, 1980, according to AccuWeather's chief meteorologist, Jonathan Porter). A flash flood emergency had been extended to at least 4 p.m. Thursday for Fort Lauderdale, Lauderhill, Hollywood, Dania Beach and Sunrise, a "life-threatening situation" in which people should seek higher ground.

Because of the extreme weather, Broward schools canceled classes and after-school activities on Thursday. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport closed about 5 p.m. Wednesday and plans to stay closed until Friday.

The Broward courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale was also closed. The city called residents in the middle of the afternoon with a recorded message asking them to avoid driving.

Hector Ortega, 36, of Davie, didn't need the reminder. After picking up his daughter from school, he tried to drive home to his neighborhood just northeast of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. He didn't make it.

"It had already started flooding into the car, so we decided to just bounce and get the rest of the way," he said. "Then we hit a speed bump, and the water went above the headlights, and that was it. The car submerged and shut down."

Ortega and his daughter walked the rest of the way home, a few blocks in the pouring rain. The water didn't quite make it into their house, but it got close. The car remains stranded.

Tow truck companies across the county were bombarded with calls from drivers like Ortega.

"The calls started last night and they never let up. We had to stop taking them at 8 o'clock," said Joel Soto, owner of Only Towing. "One of my trucks went down, got disabled. This morning we had 120 calls waiting. We're down to 66 now."

The sun crept back out on Thursday, National Weather Service Miami meteorologist George Rizzuto said, and the highest chances of rain will be in northern Broward and Palm Beach counties before drier air moves in Friday and Saturday.

'Dead in the water'

Westway Towing has responded to nearly 500 calls for service on behalf of the City of Fort Lauderdale since midnight Wednesday, according to vice president Darren Wells. The company had to shut down its Fort Lauderdale facility because it couldn't take any more cars. Most are beyond repair. At least 35 Teslas were "dead in the water," Wells said. Some of them had water up to their sunroofs.

It's unlike anything Westway has dealt with before. "There was no warning," Wells said. "People had no warning. They were at work, chilling, and boom."

Flash flooding brought one of South Florida's main airports to a standstill. Entrance and exit roads to the Fort Lauderdale airport were "impassable," officials said in a tweet, leaving tens of hundreds of travelers stranded.

The Henry E. Kinney Tunnel in downtown Fort Lauderdale remained closed Thursday and parts of Broward Boulevard were closed to traffic as well, although water is receding in other parts of the city and traffic is moving.

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Chief Steve Gollan said the southern part of the city by the airport and up to Broward Boulevard significantly flooded.

The calls firefighters responded to by Wednesday evening were largely drivers whose cars stalled out in too-deep water, requiring first responders to pick them up in high-water vehicles, Gollan said.

Firefighters were taking stranded people to higher ground, but they weren't able to move their cars, Gollan said. Tow trucks will retrieve them later.

"There's cars everywhere," Gollan said.

Fort Lauderdale officials continued to urge people to stay off the streets on Thursday until water subsides.

Water seeped into the Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue station near the airport in the 3400 block of Southwest Fourth Avenue Wednesday night, forcing first responders to evacuate with their equipment, Battalion Chief Michael Kane said in a text message. Kane said the evacuation would not cause any delayed responses to emergencies.

A video shared on social media by Fort Lauderdale attorney Adam Horowitz showed a man swimming in deep water downtown on Broward Boulevard as cars drove by during rush hour, making small waves.

Roof collapse, tornado touchdowns, hazardous conditions

Two tornadoes were confirmed near Dania Beach near the airport about 10 p.m.

A roof collapsed at a strip mall in the 3200 block of Davie Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, police said. The building was empty, and no one was injured.

Dania Beach alone recorded nearly 14 inches of rain from 8 p.m. Tuesday to 8 p.m. Wednesday, preliminary weather service reports said. Several other Broward County cities recorded totals upwards of 8 inches in the same 24-hour period.

Areas of Miami-Dade County have significantly flooded over the past few days, requiring additional temporary pumps to be added to permanent pumps at several intersections throughout the City of Miami, city officials said in a tweet. Earlier in the week, Miami Police officials said the majority of Overtown was flooded after just one day of rain.

The City of Miami recorded 2.8 inches of rain between 8 p.m. Tuesday and 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Palm Beach County was spared from the brunt of the deluge, with Lantana recording the most rain in the county between Tuesday and Wednesday night with 1.8 inches.

All of South Florida's coast is at high risk of hazardous or life-threatening rip currents through Friday morning, according to the weather service.

More showers and thunderstorms are likely Thursday before 9 p.m., according to the weather service's forecast, though the amount of rain is expected to be only between a tenth and a quarter of an inch.

The chance of rain will drop to 40% Friday, and Saturday is expected to be sunny with a high of 86 degrees.