Fort Lauderdale Airport Closed as Severe Flooding Engulfs South Florida

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Hannah Knudsen

Severe flooding has struck south Florida, shutting down the Fort Lauderdale airport until at least 5 a.m. on Friday, prompting a State of Emergency declaration for Broward County.

The area has been drenched by torrential downpours this week, which have continued into Thursday. The National Weather Service in Miami currently has a flood watch in effect spanning from Coral Springs to Homestead. Data also shows over 25 inches of rain falling at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, far surpassing  the previous record of 14.59 inches, according to NBC Miami.

Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, and Hollywood are under a flash flood warning until 7:30 p.m. Eastern:

The Florida Division of Emergency Management reported rainfall of 15-25 inches in the Fort Lauderdale area.

“The Florida Division of Emergency Management and Ft. Lauderdale International Airport’s Florida Severe Weather MesoSTEM Network, which provides hyper-accurate local data, have registered 25.87 inches of rain,” the agency reported.

As a result, the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport issued a travel update Thursday, shutting down the airport until at least 5 a.m. Friday.

“Due to the volume of flooding and debris on FLL’s airfields, the airport will remain closed for flight activity today, Thursday. April 13, until 5AM, April 14, 2023,” the update reads.

“This will allow airport staff to work to restore partial operations on one runway, providing current conditions do not worsen. Travelers should not come to the airport prior to checking with their airlines for updated flight status,” it added:

NBC Miami spoke to one woman who dropped her mother off at the airport Wednesday, which descended into a disaster due to the declining conditions.

“We were in the car from literally 4:00 until about 7:00, when we managed to finally leave the airport,” Marylin Herrera said.

“Everybody appears to be losing their mind,” she added. “There’s traffic. Everyone’s trying to get out of the flooded streets. Cars are stalling. It’s just a nightmare.”

VIDEO: Florida Drivers Attempt to Drive in Massively High Floodwaters

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Broward County public schools are also closed due to the severe flooding. At the time of this post, it remained unclear if schools would reopen on Friday:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is in Ohio for the Butler County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day event, declared a State of Emergency for Broward County:

On Friday, the Florida governor is set to deliver a speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, as the southern portion of his state continues to deal with severe flooding.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis (D) said during a press conference that DeSantis had “not yet called”:

“Fort Lauderdale is under water and DeSantis is campaigning in Ohio right now instead of taking care of the people suffering in his state,” Donald Trump Jr. observed on Thursday:

The Florida Division of Emergency Management noted in an update that Broward County has not requested assistance from the state yet but said that it has “deployed staff to support local efforts including collecting damage assessment data in Broward County.”

The Florida Department of Transportation is also responding to the historic rainfall, pumping flood waters as well as “providing maintenance of traffic for roadway closures and working with Broward County on traffic signal outages.”

The Weather Prediction Center on Thursday added that flash flooding is likely for the Fort Lauderdale region, “with locally heavy rainfall capable of 1-3″/hr rates.”

“This may lead to additional localized rainfall totals of 3-5+ inches, which could possibly aggravate ongoing flooding conditions across the highly sensitive Fort Lauderdale region,” it added.

This story is developing.

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