Floods Delay Flights at International Florida Airport

The Associated Press
By The Associated Press
December 23, 2019US News
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Floods Delay Flights at International Florida Airport
Check-in lanes are seen at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Sept. 2, 2019. (MicheleI Eve Sandberg/AFP via Getty Images)

Flash flooding and heavy rains have delayed dozens of flights and disrupted some services at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida.

The airport wrote on Twitter early Monday that it was closed due to flash flooding and severe rains. In an update at about 6:30 a.m., it said flight operations were resuming.

It had issued an advisory late Sunday that said more than 150 of its flights were experiencing weather delays and 11 flights had been canceled.

Areas around the airport were hit with about 6 inches of rain between midnight and early Monday morning, according to WPTV-TV.

Elsewhere in South Florida, parking garages and streets were flooded from the heavy rains.

South Florida television station WSVN captured a person kayaking through the grounds of the Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino in Hallandale Beach.

California Flights Delayed

Sacramento International Airport experienced flight delays during one of its busiest holiday travel weekends due to an internet outage, a spokeswoman said.

Airport spokeswoman Samantha Mott said Sunday that AT&T is experiencing outages in Sacramento after a vehicle crash took out a utility pole Saturday night.

Almost all of the airport’s airlines and some concessions were affected, Mott said. The airport itself has a backup system.

The airport’s largest carrier, Southwest Airlines, is experienced the most delays. Arriving flights were not affected.

Mott did not have an estimate of how many flights were delayed.

A Southwest Airlines plane is serviced before departure, December 10, 2017. (Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images)
A Southwest Airlines plane is serviced before departure, Dec. 10, 2017. (Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images)

NTD staff contributed to this report.