279 homes suffer major damage in Fort Lauderdale neighborhood
FORT LAUDERDALE - Record rainfall of more than 25 inches last week in Fort Lauderdale lead to flooding that caused major damage to 279 homes in the Edgewood area, according to a city spokeswoman.
And as the flood waters that inundated Edgewood last week have subsided and work crews and residents were seen removing debris and cleaning up on Monday, some residents told CBS News Miami's Peter D'Oench that there was more damage than they expected.
William Falce took CBS News Miami inside the home he is renting in Edgewood just south of State Road 84 and west of S.W. 15th Ave.
As he pointed to a mark on a wall inside his home, he said, "The watermark you can see here was 22 inches high. All the furniture and the doors were damaged and we lost a lot of paper. We are calling this a total loss. You can see the damage to all the cabinets and they will need to be torn out."
"Fortunately, I have renter's insurance, but this is horrible. This is very stressful," Facle said.
Across the street, longtime resident Ken Holland said, "The Lord said he would never flood us again but he sure has."
Nearby, Stephanie Gordillo took us inside the home that she lives in with her mother and father.
"This is where the floor got pulled up and it was probably up to 2 feet here. It happened badly over 2 nights. It would not stop raining and raining and raining. We lost power for at least 4 days, from Wednesday to Sunday," she said.
"It got my bed wet and all of the electronics. This is all soaking wet still."
She said, "I thought Please stop. My God, don't let it rain anymore. I was afraid of the electricity and getting shocked. I was afraid for my mom and dad, especially my mom because she has asthma. We have had floods and I have lived here for 30-plus years. But never before has it been this bad. The house was lifted off the ground. I have never had water come inside my house like this and have never had water come into my home like this as it was up to my knees."
Gordillo said, "We don't have insurance on our house so we are going to call FEMA to see if they can help us in any way."
Not far away, Patricia Russell took us inside the home she has lived in for the past 51 years after growing up in another home nearby that she had lived in for another 15 years.
"You can see the whole house has damage. You see the water line up to here," Russell said.
She said it was painful to show CBS News Miami all of the damage to the room after room.
"One bed here is gone and one is still here."
Her son shared a montage of photos with CBS News Miami that documented the flooding and the damage.
"What were you thinking when this happened?" D'Oench asked her.
"What went through your mind?"
"I was thinking where am I going to live? How am I going to live? I mean there's just nothing. I mean everything is gone. I am trying to salvage some photos and some memories. It is horrible. I don't know what I am going to do," she said.
Russell said she was going to check her insurance policy to see what sort of coverage she had.
Flooding also caused some significant damage to homes in the Melrose Park area but a city spokeswoman said the city did not have an estimate yet on the number of homes in Melrose Park with major damage.
