Flood city: Record rain hit one year ago. How far has Fort Lauderdale come in bracing for next big storm?
After getting the wake-up call, Fort Lauderdale has put its drainage upgrade plan on the fast track. But it will take a decade to finish the entire $750 million project.
It was a strange day.
A day when a rain of historic proportions hit Fort Lauderdale, dumping 26 inches in a matter of hours.
Cars floated like boats along city streets. Water crept up the walls of homes in low-lying areas. Floodwaters got so high, planes could no longer fly out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Experts covering last year’s April 12 deluge referred to the record-breaking downpour as a 1,000-year storm. But another record breaker could come along sooner than we think, they warned.
Heeding the wake-up call, Fort Lauderdale has put a long-term plan for drainage upgrades on the fast track. Last year’s mid-April deluge prompted the city to add 17 neighborhoods to the list of eight already in line for improvements. The entire project, an investment of more than $750 million, will take a decade to complete.
The work can’t be done in a day, but city officials say they are expediting the work as quickly as possible.
Critics have complained that the work should have been done 10 years ago.
Mayor Dean Trantalis does not disagree. But no drainage system could have handled the historical rain that fell on Fort Lauderdale that day, he notes.
The rainfall from the April 12 downpour amounted to roughly 88 billion gallons, enough to cover the entire state of Florida in 0.07 inches of water, according to The Washington Post.
“We experienced a historically significant rainfall that has never before hit any city in the entire state,” Trantalis said. “We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars on storm drains. But they’re designed to only sustain 2 to 3 inches per day of rainfall. And you’re talking about 26 inches in five hours. No matter what drains we had in place, we still would have suffered the flooding — even if all those projects were completed.”
New pipes on fast track
Fort Lauderdale expects to spend more than $250 million installing and upgrading storm drains in eight neighborhoods as part of the project’s first phase: River Oaks, Edgewood, Durrs, Dorsey-Riverbend, Progresso Village, Southeast Isles, Victoria Park and Melrose Manors/Riverland.
The second phase calls for spending $500 million to upgrade the flood infrastructure in the following 17 neighborhoods over the next 10 years: Riverland Landings, Sailboat Bend, Tarpon River, Flagler Village, Harbor Isles/Inlet, Poinsettia Heights, South Middle River, Melrose Park, Shady Banks, Croissant Park, Middle River Terrace, Imperial Point, Lake Ridge, Riverland Manors/Woods, Chula Vista, Riverland Village and Lauderdale Isles.
Vice Mayor Steve Glassman says Fort Lauderdale is doing what needs to be done to be ready for the next crazy storm.
“At the end of the day, weather happens everywhere, catastrophes happen everywhere,” Glassman said. “We have to stay vigilant. We know what’s coming. Climate change is real. It’s time for us to use the tools in the toolbox to make sure we’re prepared for the future.”
Why didn’t the city make these upgrades years ago?
“I’ve been in office for six years and this has been priority No. 1 for six years,” Glassman said. “I cannot speak for my predecessors in all the years before. But I can tell you, it’s very clear this was not a priority. Anyone who says ‘too little, too late’ has to understand we’re making up for lost time. But we’re making up for lost time in a very dramatic and significant way.”
Last April’s flash flood prompted city officials to come up with what they’re calling the Fortify Lauderdale project, said Dr. Nancy Gassman, assistant director of Public Works.
The plan will accelerate design of stormwater upgrades for 17 neighborhoods, with design work initiated ahead of the original schedule. Most of the work will incorporate the use of pumps to move stormwater off land.
Wherever possible, the stormwater upgrades will handle 7 inches in rainfall in a 24-hour period, Gassman said.
Construction on new drainage has gotten underway in the Durrs neighborhood in central Fort Lauderdale. And the city is currently bringing on a contractor to start work in nearby Dorsey Riverbend.
In Edgewood, a neighborhood near the airport that saw extreme flooding during the April 12 storm, crews have laid more than 5.5 miles of new stormwater pipe.
They are now working on completing another project in nearby River Oaks with upgraded stormwater pipes and three stormwater pump stations. But the pipes on both neighborhoods won’t work until crews can install the high-capacity pump stations. That won’t happen until late 2024.
To help mitigate flooding in Edgewood, crews hired by the city have removed an overgrowth of invasive trees that blocked the flow of water in Osceola Creek. Now they’re dredging the creek to restore capacity.
“If you were standing here before, you wouldn’t have even been able to see across the creek,” city engineer Deborah Cueva said in a video posted recently on Fort Lauderdale’s social media sites.
The $6.5 million project got underway in September and is expected to be completed in late 2024. But the work is only taking place in the section of creek that sits on the south side of State Road 84 in the Edgewood neighborhood.
‘Why were we left out?’
Some are wondering why Fort Lauderdale has no plans to clear the equally overgrown section of the creek that runs north of State Road 84 into River Oaks.
“We need both sides flood-ready. Why were we left out?” said Ted Inserra, president of the River Oaks Civic Association.
The short answer: The north side is under private ownership.
“According to the Property Appraisers Website, Secure Storage at 84 has owned it since July 2009,” Gassman said. “The property to the north of Secure Storage has multiple owners with internal parcels sold at different times. At this time, the city does not have any plans to approach the owners. Generally speaking, the city does not conduct public works on privately owned land.”
Inserra said he’s hoping the city will reconsider.
“They’re clearing the creek on the south side but they’re not doing our side,” he said. “They’re stopping. It’s going to flow from their side to our side and they left our side completely overgrown. It just didn’t make any sense to me.”
Inserra and his neighbors don’t want to suffer through another bad storm.
“With all the rain we’ve had, we’re worried the drainage pipes are filled with debris,” he said. “We’ve got grass and plants growing out of drains because there’s so much packed mud in there. It looks like a terrarium in there.”
Last year’s record storm took a toll on the city’s lowest-lying neighborhoods, leaving homes damaged and residents worried about what might happen next time.
Commissioners Warren Sturman and Pamela Beasley-Pittman represent neighborhoods that were hard hit by flooding, but declined to respond to requests for comment.
The surge of water caused damage to more than 1,000 homes, displacing some whose homes were no longer fit to live in. One year later, some neighborhoods are still recovering.
City officials say they don’t have a count on how many homes remain uninhabitable.
‘A really crazy, humbling year’
Kitty McGowan, president of the Edgewood Civic Association, says she’s in the midst of doing a count to get a handle on how many people in her neighborhood have not moved back home.
“I’d say around 30% have not moved back in,” she said. “Everyone else went on with their lives. And so many of us in this neighborhood are still dealing with the impact, including the PTSD every time it rains.”
McGowan and her husband were able to return home just a month ago, nearly a year after the storm hit.
“We’re moved in but we’re camping,” she said. “We have a bed and a functioning bathroom but we still don’t have a kitchen. It’s been a really crazy, humbling year.”
Shirlee Sandler, a longtime resident of River Oaks, is still living in her home, but has put off repairs until the city gets those new pipes working.
“I have not replaced any of the flooring yet,” she said. “I’m worried about it flooding again. The pumps are not done yet and we still have to go through another hurricane season. Any time we get a little bit of rainfall, my driveway and backyard flood ankle deep.”
Over in Edgewood, Dawn Beemer just finished the repairs on her Lauder Lakes mobile home. But to her, it still looks like a tornado just hit.
“I just pulled everything out of storage,” she said. “That’s why it looks like a tornado in here. It really does. Everything’s just all over the place.”
The night the storm hit, her neighbors came over to her place with their two dogs to ride out the storm.
“They walked over to my house in 5 feet of water,” she said. “We were sitting on the couch and the water came up to our knees. We stayed there all night long.”
By the next morning, her place was a wreck.
“I lost all my flooring, all my electronics,” she said. “Everything that was not lifted up. I lost shoes. I lost furniture. I lost jewelry. Family photos. Music.”
‘Everything had to go’
Beverly Freeman rode out the storm in River Oaks with her Yorkie and two cats. At one point, she had 4 feet of water in her home and at least one frog swimming through the living room.
“I was out of the house for six months,” she said. “I stayed with my friend out in Miramar while the house was being rebuilt. The kitchen cabinets were all ruined. All the furniture was ruined. All interior doors and appliances. Everything had to go.”
She’s back home now, but doesn’t have furniture yet.
“I’m buying one piece at a time,” she said. “The day I moved back in, which was Oct. 1, we had a big rain and we had a water main break. The water was an inch from coming into my house. It was a scary time, let me tell you. I don’t know if any of us will ever recover from that (April 12 storm), financially or emotionally.”
Freeman saw some neighbors pick up and leave. But she decided to stay.
“This is my hood,” she said. “I grew up here. I’d like to stay in this house another 10 years. But if it happens again, I’m out of here.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan