Fort Lauderdale airport closed until Friday, stranding hundreds of passengers

From a flooded Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to inundated streets of Broward County, a transportation nightmare was all but guaranteed Thursday after unprecedented rains pounded the area the day before.

The airport announced that it is grounding all flights until 5 a.m. Friday due to the volume of flooding and debris on the air field, although the upper level roadways are open for passenger pick-ups. Travelers are advised not to come to the airport without checking their airline in advance for flight status.

The lower-level roadway remains closed until further notice.

The cities of Fort Lauderdale and Dania Beach announced they were declaring a local state of emergency.

[ RELATED: South Florida struggling to emerge from ‘life-threatening’ floods ]

The city said it secured airboats and “high clearance buggies” from BSO and Florida Wildlife Commission to help support rescue operations.

“Staff is assessing park facilities to convert them to staging/reunification centers for individuals impacted by the flash floods,” the city said in an advisory emailed to residents. “We expect to open these as soon as possible.”

Fire Rescue and police continued to answer calls for service and “are doing their best to navigate through the flooded streets.”

By 5 a.m. the city said, the American Red Cross arrived to aid with a staging site at the Winn Dixie near State Road 84 and Ninth Avenue.

“Please stay off the roads,” the city said early Thursday. “There are various arterial roads with broken-down cars and tow trucks continue removing these to improve traffic flow. We ask neighbors to be patient with respect to the flooding, as the 50-year flood event has poured more than 20 inches of rain in areas of Fort Lauderdale.”

Officials said they expect flooding “to subside through the next hours and have seen improvements in certain areas of downtown.”

Transportation in and out of the county remained a tenuous proposition with the airport closed and major roads submerged beneath floodwaters.

[ Stuck at the airport? Check the status of your flight ]

Stranded passengers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Thursday. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Spirit Airlines, which flies the most passengers in and out of the airport, canceled a 30th anniversary celebration so it could restore operations caused by the airport closure, a spokesman said. Late Thursday morning the airline announced all its flights would be discontinued until 11 a.m. Friday

JetBlue Airways, the second-busiest carrier serving the airport, said it would not resume operations until airport conditions allowed.

“Please closely monitor your flight status as well as local road conditions prior to traveling to the FLL Airport,” the airline said in a website message. JetBlue said it would waive change/cancel fees and fare differences for customers traveling Wednesday through Thursday on trips affected by the closure.

Stranded passengers on Thursday were visibly upset, frustrated and furious, many prevented from reaching their vacation destination, but others in more dire circumstances.

Yvette Ellis and her husband Rohan Jarrett, of West Palm Beach, were trying to get to Montego Bay, Jamaica, to attend Jarrett’s sister’s funeral. She died in childbirth.

They drove to Fort Lauderdale to fly Southwest using tickets obtained through a third-party broker.

Ellis was furious at the airline. “We tried to reach somebody, but there’s nobody here,” she said near the empty ticket counter about noon on Thursday. “At least they could have given us a call or some type of acknowledgement that this was happening.”

Bonnie Fickett, of West Palm Beach, arrived at the Fort Lauderdale airport only minutes after the announcement that all flights were grounded until Friday.

She said she was flying on JetBlue to Cancun, Mexico, and there were no flights out of either West Palm Beach or Miami. “I’m just so … angry,” she said, adding she had received a confirmation that her flight was scheduled and she now has lost a week’s worth of parking as well.

“I’m going home to have a drink,” she said. “I’m on vacation!”

[ RELATED: Nearly 26 inches of rain: ‘A really unprecedented event’ in parts of Fort Lauderdale ]

Bob Maguire, who has a winter home in Boynton Beach, spent the night at the airport and had been hoping to get out on Thursday afternoon to Massachusetts. He said he was heading back to his Boynton home “to try to get some sleep.”

He said he used to operate a school district and there was “no sense of planning here. You would think they would have a contingency plan.”

“It was a disappointment,” he said. “I just thought it was disgraceful” the lack of information shared with passengers.

Darius Spencer of San Diego, who spent the night at the airport, played his ukelele to help keep the restless crowd entertained. He said he slept on the “very cold floor” because there was nowhere to lie down until he “found a nice cardboard box.”

But many passengers stranded at the airport remained frustrated.

“This is pure stupidity,” said Rob Gourley, of Sarasota, who had been heaing to Nassau, the Bahamas, with his wife Dana and had been at the airport since Wednesday. “It’s the first time out in five years because of COVID and everything. We’re ready to just drive home and forget it.”

Bob McMahon, of Swanzey N.H., was at the airport with his girlfriend early Thursday. They had flown out of New Hampshire to Baltimore, then Jacksonville, then to West Palm Beach, where they were put in a taxi that took them to a Rodeway Inn near the Fort Lauderdale airport at 2 a.m. Thursday. “We’re already a couple days behind on our trip,” he said, and added he was hoping to extend his vacation to make up for the problems.

Flooding lingers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Thursday after heavy rain pounded South Florida a day earlier. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Arrival and departure boards Thursday morning were littered with misinformation, as some airlines scrambled to update flight statuses and others, like Southwest, listing no delays on any flight all morning.

Terminal 2, the Delta terminal, sat surrounded by water like a peninsula. Effects of receding water could be seen around the airport, with landscaping debris like wood chips lying along the walkways. Drivers started to pass through the closed lower level by mid-morning, although a pond of water sits between Terminals 1 and 2, blocking traffic.

Outside of Terminal 3, which houses JetBlue and other airlines, weary passengers slept outside on wooden benches.

On the lower level of Terminal 4, which houses Spirit as well as international flights, hundreds of tagged bags sat waiting to be claimed. On the upper level, hundreds of people stood in line waiting to straighten out their flight arrangements.

Wellington Teixeira, who manages a Currency Exchange International booth on the lower level of Terminal 4 and has worked at the airport since 2018, said, “It’s the most flooding I have ever seen here. Even the hurricanes didn’t produce this much water” at the airport.

[ WATCH: Stunning drone footage shows river of stranded cars on downtown Fort Lauderdale streets ]

For daily commuters who get to work by car, Thursday clearly shaped up as a day for remote working as the previous day’s rainwaters were slow to recede and stalled cars remained stranded on flooded streets.

Overall, the city counseled patience “as the storm water system will naturally drain as the rain lessens and the ground is able to absorb the standing water.”

According to the Broward County Transit website, Routes 15, 23, 56, and other BCT Fixed Routes as well as TOPS Paratransit routes are experiencing delays due to the flooding.

Tri-Rail, the commuter rail line that runs between Mangonia Park north of West Palm Beach and Miami International Airport, was running on schedule.

Shipping traffic in and out of Port Everglades appeared to be operating normally, according to a real time timetable of arrivals and departures on its website.

“We are conducting damage assessments this morning,” said spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy in an email.

She said the Viking Octantis, a new expedition cruise ship, “is making her maiden call today as scheduled.”

Commuter train travel took a hit late Wednesday as a Brightline train collided late with a car carrier stuck at a crossing on the tracks in Hollywood. No one was injured, but service between the downtowns of Fort Lauderdale and Miami was still suspended well past midnight. Service had resumed early Thursday.

Flooding lingers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Thursday after heavy rain pounded South Florida a day earlier. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

One unhappy fast fact: Fort Lauderdale’s storm water system is designed to handle 3 inches of rain within a 24-hour period; a National Weather Service statement about 10:30 a.m. said that Fort Lauderdale received just shy of 26 inches.

Neighbors were advised to report concerns to a 24-hour customer line at 954-828-8000.

Staff writer Kathy Laskowski and staff photojournalist Joe Cavaretta contributed to this report.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.