MIAMI — Torrential rains pounded South Florida on Wednesday as officials warned residents to steer clear of “life threatening flooding” in some of the state’s most populous regions.
The National Weather Service in Miami urged residents to stay indoors, off the roads and away from dangerous moving waters.
Flood warnings for parts of four South Florida counties, including Miami-Dade, will continue until 8 a.m. Thursday.
The downpour is complicating air travel in and out of the region. Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport told would-be travelers that its entrances and exits were flooded.
As of Wednesday evening, 284 flights out of or into that airport had been canceled. At Miami International Airport, the number of cancellations was a combined 326, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
“Started at 9:30, got bumped to 12:30, got bumped to 3:30, got bumped to 6:30. I’m going to miss all my connection flights, and I’m stuck here with like a foot of rain falling down,” a traveler told NBC South Florida.
The Florida Highway Patrol shut down part of southbound Interstate 95 in Broward County on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
First responders in Hollywood, near Fort Lauderdale, rushed to trapped motorists late Wednesday afternoon.
“We are receiving calls of some people who are stuck in vehicles they’ve driven in the flooded roads,” city spokesperson Joann Hussey told NBC South Florida.
Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an emergency in Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade and Sarasota counties. A declaration allows for state aid. The cities of Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood also issued emergency declarations.
The Miami-Dade County Department of Emergency Management told residents there: “Do not drive unless absolutely necessary and seek higher ground if needed.” The agency said that if vehicles stall, people inside should immediately abandon them to avoid being swept away with them.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, cities and other locales across the region had recorded more than a half-foot of rain over the previous 48 hours: 11.28 inches at the Fort Lauderdale airport, 7.49 at the Miami airport, 8 in Fort Myers and 7.74 in Sarasota.
The hours of continuous rain have rendered pumps nearly useless because the equipment has nowhere to send the excess water.
“There is so much water that the pumps really don’t have a lot of places for it [the water] to go right now,” Hussey said.
The early June downpours follow the warmest May on record in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Naples.
A record-breaking 8 inches of rain hit Florida’s west coast in just three hours Tuesday night.
So rare was Tuesday’s rain between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Sarasota that it should be expected only every 500 to 1,000 years. The Tampa Bay area can normally expect 7.3 inches in the entire month of June.
Robert Wile and Brian Hamacher reported from Miami, David K. Li from New York City and Phil Helsel from Los Angeles.
Patrick Smith, Anthony Cusumano, Nicole Duarte and Brian Van Aken contributed.
