Water Damage Restoration in Fort Lauderdale, FL
22.50 inches fell at the airport in one day.
766 homes took in 18 inches or more.
Floodwater in a Fort Lauderdale house soaks down into the slab while groundwater pushes up from underneath. The street clears long before the walls do. We get the water out, dry the slab and walls until the meter agrees and seal the way it came in.
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Water Damage in Fort Lauderdale
What April 2023 showed about water in this city
On the evening of April 12, 2023, NWS Miami issued the first Flash Flood Emergency ever for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro, according to its review of the event. Storms had sat over the city for hours. By late evening cars stood abandoned in flooded roads and water was coming into homes.
The NWS Miami 2023 summary calls it by far the most significant flood of the year, one that displaced residents of whole neighborhoods. Three years later Local10 found Edgewood families still living with it, one of them in a house still under construction.
Edgewood and the Streets Near the Airport
The next day NWS surveyors found the deepest standing water around the airport and just north of it, with high water marks of two to three feet across the area. WLRN reported an Edgewood home that filled with more than three feet. The city lists its new stormwater work in Edgewood as complete under Fortify Lauderdale.
Ground That Was Already Full
NWS Miami had put coastal Miami-Dade and Broward under a flood watch the day before, because of rain that had already fallen and the heavy rain still coming. With the aquifer a few feet under the city and the ground soaked, little of the new rain could sink in. It ran sideways, into garages and under doors.
What April 2023's numbers mean
The numbers people quote for that day measure different things. Here is what each one counts.
| The number | What it measured | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 22.50 inches | Rain at the airport's official NWS gauge on April 12, 2023 | The official one-day record. The old record of 14.59 inches had stood since April 25, 1979. |
| 25.91 inches | A second gauge on the airport grounds, run by WeatherStem, the same day | Nearly all of it fell in about 12 hours. Early reports used this number. |
| Rarer than 1 in 1,000 | NOAA's odds for the heaviest 12 hours of rain near the airport | Less than a 0.1 percent chance in any given year. A storm that size can still come again next year. |
| 18 inches | FEMA's line for major damage, measured as water inside a home | FEMA damage teams counted 766 homes with at least that much, WLRN reported. |
| Nearly 114 inches | The airport's rain for all of 2023 | Its wettest year on record, according to NWS Miami. |
Sources: NWS Miami daily climate records for Fort Lauderdale, event review and 2023 summary. NOAA precipitation frequency analysis. WLRN, April 27, 2023.
What type of water damage is not covered by insurance?
Flooding from rising water outside the house. A standard Florida homeowners policy excludes it, so you need a separate flood policy, usually written through the National Flood Insurance Program. Damage from slow leaks, wear or neglected maintenance is usually excluded as well.
Water Damage Questions From Fort Lauderdale
Should wet drywall be cut out after a flood?
Is it safe to stay in a house that flooded?
Does flood insurance cover mold after a flood?
Why do some Fort Lauderdale streets flood so fast?
Do you work with my insurance adjuster?
Our Process
Our water damage process in Fort Lauderdale
- 1
Call Any Hour
Call 888-603-MOLD at any hour and a person answers. We tell you where to shut off the water and what to move, then schedule the crew.
- 2
Extract
We pump out standing water and pull up soaked carpet and pad. Getting the bulk of the water out first shortens the drying that follows.
- 3
Open the Walls
We cut the drywall above the water line and take out wet insulation and baseboards. That lets the block and the slab edge behind them dry.
- 4
Dry to a Logged Standard
Dehumidifiers and air movers run until meter readings in the walls and slab reach a dry standard. We log every reading, which gives your insurer a record.
- 5
Seal the Way In
If the water came through the foundation, we waterproof the block before the walls close up. If a pipe or an appliance failed, we tell you exactly what broke.
In Fort Lauderdale the way in can be the seam at the slab edge, with groundwater a few feet below the floor.
Our mold work runs under Florida mold remediator license MRSR5565. Our foundation waterproofing carries a lifetime warranty against water coming through the section we treat.
MRSR5565
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Inspection for Homeowners