Bay Bell says she had just moved into a new apartment in the Edgewood neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale — just north of the airport. She still hadn’t finished hanging up her art on the walls.
When she got home from work on Wednesday evening, Bell said her home was already full of water.
“I left the job at 5 p.m. I got home … and it was already over. There was nothing I could have done,” Bell said. “It was already underwater.”
The water just kept coming — she couldn’t believe how fast.
“It was just my mattress that was above water at the worst part of it,” Bell said. “And at one point, the water was so high, all the appliances in the kitchen began to topple over. And I still had electricity. So the water is potentially … a current. So it was … really a scary situation.”
Standing outside the emergency shelter at the Holiday Park gym in Fort Lauderdale, Bell said she’s thankful that she made it out alive.
“I was rescued by Fire & Rescue … by the time they got to me, the water was so high [that with] the pressure on the front door, I couldn’t get out of the front door,” she said. “So I was literally trapped for hours and hours and hours. With no way out.”
According to city officials, about 600 Fort Lauderdale residents have been displaced by the devastating floods. The rainfall was historic — according to preliminary counts from the National Weather Service, more than 25 inches of rain was measured at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
So far, no deaths and no major injuries have been reported, according to the city of Fort Lauderdale.
On Friday morning, lots of standing water was still visible at the airport, though flights had resumed. All Broward County Public Schools were closed Thursday and Friday as staffers tallied the damage and cleaned up the mess — though district officials plan to reopen on Monday.
Plenty of roads remained underwater on Friday, including some of the streets leading to the shelter at Holiday Park, which is being managed by the American Red Cross.
Inside, dozens of cots line the floor of the gym — where families, dogs and at least one parrot have been taking shelter.
The water kept coming up
Among the displaced residents there was Dawn Beemer, who was grateful to have a dry place to stay. She was at home at the Lauder Lakes Mobile Home Community near the airport when the water started rising.
“I’m watching it, watching it, watching it ... [and I'm thinking] 'There’s no way it’s going to come up!'” Beemer recalled, adding that her home sits well above ground level. “We’re four feet off the ground! It’s never flooded four feet off the ground before.”
But the water kept coming up.
Ultimately, Beemer says she got 12 inches of water inside her home. Beemer, two of her neighbors and their two dogs hunkered down and waited for the sun to come up — their feet dipping in the water all night long.
“My friends?” Beemer said, “their house is gone. There’s no repairing it.”
The neighborhood was inundated. Photos of the trailers look like they’re floating in a lake.
“It’ll probably be $40,000 to 50,000 to get everything fixed, mildew removed and all that stuff,” Beemer estimated.
Asked if she’d be able to pay down that kind of price tag, Beemer said, “of course not!”
“It’s not doable for anybody that’s in the community,” she said. “Nobody.”
None of her neighbors have flood insurance, Beemer says. And she’s getting worried about the ones who are still staying in their water-damaged homes, like a disabled neighbor she said she checked on Friday morning.
“He was like, 'Why are you checking on me? I’m ok!'” she said.
But in the South Florida heat, conditions in the waterlogged trailers will deteriorate rapidly.
“What’s going to happen now though is the heat’s picking up and it’s going to be stifling because their air conditionings will not work,” Beemer said. “And then the mold is going to start.”
South Florida was already facing an affordable housing crisis before this storm. Beemer says she has no idea where she and her neighbors will go next.
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