FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Two full nights after the floods first responders are still out in Fort Lauderdale, looking to see who still may need help.
“My car has literally floated away,” said a person on a video recording the scene on a cell phone, recorded Wednesday night.
An Edgewood neighborhood is still under water Friday afternoon.
John Foreman told 7News that he and his friends rescued 20 people from flooded homes in this community.
“There was about 4 feet of water in the houses,” Foreman said. “It was above the couches and the beds. There was no place that wasn’t wet, and people were freezing.”
With so much water remaining, so does the trauma from that torrential downpour.
“Terrible. It’s a nightmare,” said a woman. “We have a flooded house over here, and over here we have no electricity. This whole street is no electricity. I am shaking now.”
Those just now coming back to survey the damage are stunned.
“This is insane. No one say this coming, so now I am going to swim into my apartment and see what I can salvage, what I can pick up,” said another woman, “These are my mom’s clothes. This is insane. No one saw this coming, so now I am going to swing into my apartment and see what I can salvage”.
Thursday night into Friday morning, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue said they received 250 calls to service.
On Friday, 7News rode with a crew of South Florida first responders responding to calls.
It now appears everyone who was in dire straights has been rescued.
“We’ve touched and done what is called a windshield assessment,” said Fort Lauderdale Fire Chief Stephen Gollan. “We have gone out and met with neighbors and individuals, have looked in the windows of the homes and have confirmed at this point, there should be no one trapped in their house that we know of.”
In Melrose Park, another waterlogged section of Fort Lauderdale, the people who live here are angry.
Rumila Smith Winter is one of those upset residents.
“What they want us to do with all this?” she said. “What they want us to do?”
In a media conference earlier Friday, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis spoke to efforts by the city as the water lingers.
“As you can see behind us, there’s still flooding,” he said, “and neighbors are still hurting. We’re doing our best to make sure that those neighbors are being taken care of today and tomorrow so that this situation is alleviated, and we can move on.”
This neighborhood has a history of flooding and Smith Winter said she is fed up.
Residents dealt with severe flooding back in 2020, and the city said they made improvements to fix the problem.
“Oh, please!” said Smith Winter. “Where? Where? This don’t look like failure? This looks like failure to me.”
Clearly, in 2023, flooding in the area remains an issue.
“If they can’t do the job, get the hell out of Dodge,” said Smith Winter, “and the poor people that live like this? It’s not fair. I’m mad, real mad, because the next time it’s going to be in mine.”
City officials have said they sent out pump trucks to the area, but none were seen on Florida Avenue.
Residents said they want to see a long-term solution, not something to fix things right now.
It was a similar scenario in Dania Beach where six vac trucks and pumps citywide were used to help get the water out faster.
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