The Fort Lauderdale airport reopened Friday morning after monumental flooding wreaked havoc on the South Florida city and surrounding communities, closing schools and government buildings.
Many streets turned into lakes across Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday and Thursday when a historic volume of rain exceeding 2 feet inundated the coastal city. The flooding shut down the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for about 40 hours.
The music festival is to proceed Friday
A three-day music festival in Fort Lauderdale is slated to kick off Friday as planned, organizers said, as attendees look to find alternate routes to navigate flooded streets.
The Tortuga Music Festival will open its gates at noon Friday, a festival spokesperson told NDLM. The country music festival, which aims to raise funds for marine conservation efforts, will return for its tenth year.
“We look forward to a great weekend, for a great cause, and the best fans in the world to enjoy the tenth anniversary of Tortuga,” the festival spokesperson said.
Mandi-Lynn Guertin, who flew into Fort Lauderdale from Connecticut for the festival, said she had not experienced this much flooding before.
Guertin was in a rented car with her friends when the vehicle got stuck in about 3 feet of water, shut off and water quickly filled the inside. The group had to leave it on the side of the road.
“We currently can’t leave our Airbnb because the floodwaters are too high and no Ubers will come out to get us,” Guertin told NDLM.