It’s been two years to the day since Fort Lauderdale’s Edgewood neighborhood got hit with historic flooding.
Neighbors gathered Saturday to remember what happened back then and how far they’ve come since that day.
Traumatic memories
April 12, 2023, is the day Jessica Boyd remembers water rushing in through her side door.
“It’s hard to revisit,” she said.
Her furniture, her valuables and her cats all got wet and contaminated.
“Anything we tried to do, it just penetrated through that and continued on until I’d say about three in the morning,” Boyd said.
Floodwater washed out her yard and the rest of Edgewood that day. Boyd said she couldn’t stay in her home for nine months and that she lost almost everything. And, even though the water subsided, she’s still rebuilding.
“We’re trying to refurbish and still get all our furnishings and dressers,” Boyd said. “We just got a dresser, which is nice because we can pick stuff up off the floor.”
Boyd told CBS News Miami that though the flood happened two years ago, she’s still reminded about it every time it rains.
“I start taking things and putting them up on the highest shelf,” she said.
Fighting back against flooding
Kitty McGowan, president of the Edgewood Civic Association, organized the get-together for residents on the two-year mark of the flooding. She told CBS News Miami that Boyd’s situation is not unique.
“We lost everything. We were evacuated on a swamp buggy. We’re still fighting back,” McGowan said. “And, there are still dozens and dozens of homes that are still fighting to get back where they were.”
The City of Fort Lauderdale has placed pumps in Edgewood during flood warnings, and they completed a $14.5 million stormwater improvement project in the neighborhood last year.
