South Florida had devastating flooding and tornado warnings as a result of a powerful storm that brought ferocious rain and strong winds.
This situation is ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued an urgent warning to residents of Fort Lauderdale and adjacent areas of Broward County on Wednesday.
The NWS reported that some communities had received more than 10 inches of rain, including Fort Lauderdale, where the total amount of precipitation on Wednesday was 25.91 inches.
The deluge made Wednesday the rainiest day in Fort Lauderdale’s history on record. The previous record was set in 1979, when a storm dropped over 14 inches of rain.
Two other nearby cities, Hollywood and Dania Beach, reported 18 and 17 inches of rainwater, respectively.
Tornado warnings were also issued for the more inland municipalities of Davie, Plantation, and Lauderhill.
Florida typically only sees high wind speeds and precipitation during hurricane season, which begins on June 1. Meteorologists at the NWS called the storm ‘historic and extremely rare,’ and a ‘1 in 1,000 year event.’
Fort Lauderdale urged residents to stay inside and off the roads and stay home if possible while city workers attempt to clean up the floodwaters before more forecasted storms hit the area on Thursday night.
‘Large parts of the city have been underwater because of the unprecedented amount of rainfall,’ Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said in a message posted on Twitter. ‘Some streets remain flooded, and there are various roads with broken-down cars and tow trucks continue removing these to improve traffic flow.’
The city posted an update on the flood cleanup at 10.30am on Thursday, but admitted that many roads remained ‘impassible.’
The local government deployed crews with vacuum trucks to clear out storm drains, but said ‘because of the extreme amount of water, most areas will need to drain naturally.’
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was forced to close on Wednesday night and all day on Thursday ‘due to the volume of flooding and debris on FLL’s airfields,’ the airport said.
The airport is hoping to partially reopen at 5.00am on Friday after clearing one runway for use.
Broward County Public Schools closed all schools in the area on Thursday as well as all after-school programs and extracurricular activities.
Meanwhile, forecasters are warning that the same area could see more flooding on Thursday night.
The NWS in Miami said that the storms developing on Thursday are expected to be ‘scattered and isolated,’ but said they could still form over some of the worst hit parts of Broward County, causing ‘further devastation.’