Florida now has had 2 what is considered "one in a thousand year" events; hurricane Ian and now this flooding in Lauderdale.
Fort Lauderdale Is Drenched With Up to Two Feet of Rain, Shutting Its AirportThunderstorms that pummeled Fort Lauderdale and other parts of southeastern Florida with up to two feet of rain were expected to pick up again on Thursday, forecasters said, after the storms trapped motorists in floodwaters and left travelers stranded inside a shuttered airport.
Storms are a way of life in South Florida, but more than 25 inches of rain fell at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport over a 24-hour period, according to a preliminary estimate released by the National Weather Service.
If confirmed, the rainfall total would smash Fort Lauderdale’s one-day record of 14.59 inches, which was set on April 25, 1979. The city, which lies in Broward County on Florida’s Atlantic coast, is one of the largest in the state.
“What we are seeing here is a thousand-year incident,” Mayor Dean Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale said at a news conference. “No city could have planned for this.”
He said every part of the city had been impacted.
“This was a very rare event,” he said.
The Fort Lauderdale airport, which closed early Wednesday evening, had been expected to fully reopen at noon on Thursday. However, the airport later announced that it would delay the reopening for flight activity until 5 a.m. on Friday because of debris and water on the runways.
The closures, flooding and bad weather combined to cause hourslong traffic jams..............
Thunderstorms that pummeled Fort Lauderdale and other parts of southeastern Florida with up to two feet of rain were expected to pick up again on Thursday, forecasters said, after the storms trapped motorists in floodwaters and left travelers stranded inside a shuttered airport.
Storms are a way of life in South Florida, but more than 25 inches of rain fell at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport over a 24-hour period, according to a preliminary estimate released by the National Weather Service.
If confirmed, the rainfall total would smash Fort Lauderdale’s one-day record of 14.59 inches, which was set on April 25, 1979. The city, which lies in Broward County on Florida’s Atlantic coast, is one of the largest in the state.
“What we are seeing here is a thousand-year incident,” Mayor Dean Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale said at a news conference. “No city could have planned for this.”
He said every part of the city had been impacted.
“This was a very rare event,” he said.
The Fort Lauderdale airport, which closed early Wednesday evening, had been expected to fully reopen at noon on Thursday. However, the airport later announced that it would delay the reopening for flight activity until 5 a.m. on Friday because of debris and water on the runways.
The closures, flooding and bad weather combined to cause hourslong traffic jams.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/us/fort-lauderdale-flood-airport.html
