FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – First responders are still out in Fort Lauderdale two full nights after the storms, checking to see if anyone else needs help.
“My car has literally floated away,” someone said on a cell phone video taken Wednesday night of the scene.
Friday afternoon, water is still covering a neighborhood in Edgewood.
John Foreman told 7News that he and his friends saved 20 people in this neighborhood from their flooded homes.
“There was about 4 feet of water in the houses,” said Foreman. “It was up high, above the sofas and beds. There was no dry ground, and people were freezing.”
Since so much water is still there, so is the stress from that terrible storm.
“Terrible. “It’s terrible,” a woman said. “This house is flooded, and this house doesn’t have power. There is no power on this whole street. I am shaking now.”
Those who just got back to look at the damage are shocked.
“That’s crazy. No one warned me about this, so I’m going to swim into my flat and see what I can save or what I can pick up. “These are my mom’s clothes,” said another woman. This makes no sense. No one saw this coming, so I’m going to my place right now to see what I can save.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue said that between Thursday night and Friday morning, they got 250 calls for help.
On Friday, 7News went with a group of first responders in South Florida as they went to calls.
It looks like everyone who was in trouble has now been saved.
“We’ve touched and done what is called a windshield assessment,” Fort Lauderdale Fire Chief Stephen Gollan said. “We’ve gone out and talked to neighbors and other people, looked in the windows of the homes, and found that, as far as we know, no one is stuck in their house.”
Melrose Park is another part of Fort Lauderdale that gets a lot of water, and the people who live there are angry.
One of these upset people is Rumila Smith Winter.
“What do they want us to do with all this?” she told me. “What do they want us to do?”
Friday morning, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis held a press meeting to talk about what the city is doing to deal with the water.
“As you can see behind us, there’s still flooding,” he said. “Our friends are still hurting. We’re doing our best to take care of those friends today and tomorrow so that this problem can be solved and we can move on.”
Flooding has happened in this neighborhood before, and Smith Winter said she’s had enough.
Back in 2020, there was a lot of water, and the city said they made changes to fix the problem.
Smith Winter said, “Oh, please!” “Where? Where? Doesn’t this look like a fail? This looks like failure to me.”
Flooding in the area is still a problem in 2023.
“If they can’t do the job, they should get the hell out of Dodge,” said Smith Winter. “And the poor people who live like this? That’s not right. I’m very angry because the next time it will be in my hands.”
City officials said they sent pump trucks to the area, but none were seen on Florida Avenue.
Residents said that they want to see a long-term answer, not a quick fix.
In Dania Beach, where the same thing happened, six vac trucks and pumps were used all over the city to help get the water out faster.
