Fort Lauderdale streets flood again; families say rain triggers anxiety from historic floodings in 2023

Heavy rains hit parts of Fort Lauderdale on Friday, flooding some streets.

Ted Inserra said the recent rainfall is renewing anxiety among families who lived through the historic April 2023 flooding.

"Everyone here, we get very nervous when it starts to rain," Inserra said.

The 2023 flooding left homes in River Oaks off State Road 84 east and the nearby Edgewood neighborhood under feet of water.

Kitty McGowan, an Edgewood resident, said she had four feet of water inside her home.

Friday's flooding comes as king tide season is now underway.

"We're coming into the king tide season that makes it really nerve-wracking," McGowan said. "When you get ground saturation like this and then lots of water on top and nowhere for it to go, a lot of us have a lot of PTSD."

A new pump station, completed at the end of 2024, was built to help both River Oaks and Edgewood, which are prone to flooding. The system pushes water through a filtration system and out to the New River. It was built as part of the city's Fortify Lauderdale infrastructure program.

"We were one of the first neighborhoods to have the big stormwater drain system in place from the new infrastructure Fortify Lauderdale, but it hasn't really been tested yet," Inserra said.

McGowan said she has changed how she lives in her home since 2023.

"I haven't put in nice stuff in my house; I don't have anything important on lower levels, I have a lot of stuff in plastic, and I always have an escape plan. I have a bag ready to go, and I have waders," McGowan said.

King tide season runs through the end of December.

The CBS News Miami NEXT Weather Team expects king tides to become more impactful heading into October.