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Florida floods: Airport reopens as residents clean up mess

Published:Saturday | April 15, 2023 | 12:32 AM
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James Richard and Katherine Arroyo trudge through the water in Hollywood, Fla., on April 13, 2023. Over 25 inches of rain fell in South Florida since Monday, causing widespread flooding.
AP
James Richard and Katherine Arroyo trudge through the water in Hollywood, Fla., on April 13, 2023. Over 25 inches of rain fell in South Florida since Monday, causing widespread flooding.
United Airlines and Silver Airways passengers line up in Terminal 1 in anticipation of operations resuming at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday, April 14, 2023. The airport was closed late Wednesday after torrential rains caused maj
AP
United Airlines and Silver Airways passengers line up in Terminal 1 in anticipation of operations resuming at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday, April 14, 2023. The airport was closed late Wednesday after torrential rains caused major flooding across South Florida.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP):

Fort Lauderdale’s airport reopened Friday morning, two days after an unprecedented deluge left planes and travelogues stranded, as residents in the city’s hardest hit neighbourhoods began the slow process of cleaning up the mess left behind.

Officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport completed final inspections after sunrise Friday and resumed operations at 9 a.m.

In a tweet Friday morning, airport officials advised travellers to check with their airlines on updated flight schedules before going to the airport.

The airport shut down Wednesday evening as a storm dumped more than two feet (60 centimetres) of rain.

“Nature has been unkind to us,” Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher said during a news conference Thursday afternoon at the airport.

While it started raining on Monday in south Florida, much of the water fell Wednesday, and the Fort Lauderdale area saw record rainfall amounts in a matter of hours, ranging from 15 inches (38 centimetres) to 26 inches (66 centimetres).

In Fort Lauderdale’s Edgewood neighbourhood on Friday morning, the water level had receded about a foot from Thursday, but was still up to two feet (.6 meters) deep in some spots as residents tried to clean up.