In the days after the record floods hit Fort Lauderdale, the neighborhood of Edgewood was a scene of devastation, with abandoned cars thrown about the road and distraught residents wading through water to find basic provisions and to check on their homes. Photographer Anastasia Samoylova and SA国际传谋鈥檚 Daniel Rivero were there.
In Edgewood, the luckiest of residents mopped their floors and tossed out buckets of the last remaining water in their homes 鈥� for many, the water was still inches high, even as the sun came out.
鈥淲elcome to South Florida,鈥� said Steve Allen, a resident of the neighborhood since the 1960s. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e the first person to even ask us if we need anything. The neighbors from round the corner came by in a big airboat buggy, picking people up and taking them out of the water. But that鈥檚 just about it 鈥� nobody else has even stopped.鈥�
SA国际传谋 talked to Allen on Saturday, three days after the initial flooding. The water was still shin high in his front yard, and inches deep in his home.
Allen鈥檚 cat Ziggy was on the roof of a neighbor鈥檚 home, where he had been posted for days after the flooding started, meowing as Allen spoke.
鈥淓ven these poor animals 鈥� they don鈥檛 know what to do with the water. He鈥檚 got a bowl up there." Speaking of his neighbor, he added, "All her fish in her aquarium died, you know."
Allen is a U.S. Army veteran of low, fixed income, unable to afford even a cell phone, he told SA国际传谋. He said he doesn鈥檛 know what he will do with his home in the long term, and for the time being he and his wife were simply trying to salvage what they could salvage from inside the home.
Across the street another cat is on the rooftop. Thomas and Marjorie Banks stayed put during and after the flood to take care of their animals.
鈥淚 rescue, and you know how that goes. Crazy cat ladies!鈥� said Marjorie. 鈥淲e both are sleeping in wet beds. I鈥檝e used all my linen, trying to keep that, but they get damp. So basically last night I didn鈥檛 sleep.鈥�
Marjorie was slumped over in her yellow pickup truck, which was high enough to escape destruction from the waters. Elsewhere, abandoned cars lined the flooded street. Garage doors were blown open by cars that were lifted by the flood waters and thrust into the structure.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have words. I don鈥檛 know what to say. I just came here to see if at least I can save something, but as you can see, no. Everything is destroyed."Edgewood resident Jamilette Gonzalez
Marjorie said she had to jump out of the window to save her pitbull from the backyard, since flood water pressure kept the door shut.
鈥淲hen I secured myself to jump down, water was over my boobs quite frankly. So that鈥檚 how deep it was in our backyard,鈥� she said.
One resident told SA国际传谋 that his dog died in the flood.
A few doors down, Tara Hardy's chickens survived the flood by standing on a wood post in their coop. Returning home to check on everything, she opened all the doors of the home and swept out remaining puddles.
Hardy had fled with her family once water started to come into the house and she started to smell fuel in the water. Even days later, streaks of rainbow colored fuel could be seen in the flooded street.
"There wasn't a dry spot in the house to stand and my daughter started sobbing. She's six. So I made the decision that before the water got any higher we had to get out," she told SA国际传谋.
Her mother-in-law stayed in the home, but the water got so high Hardy's husband had to go back and evacuate his mother in a canoe, she said.
Baseless rumors swirled about an elderly couple that died, about another man who got electrocuted. There was no proof these things happened, but the rumors spread by word of mouth, the kind of thing that happens in a place temporarily cut off from the rest of the world.
Resident Jody Berman walked out of a still-flooded house with a piece of art over her head, a classical Indian painting featuring Hindu goddesses.
鈥淚t鈥檚 my grandmother鈥檚. I鈥檓 trying to keep anything that I can, which is not a lot. But everything, like literally everything is destroyed in my house,鈥� said Berman. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just an heirloom, it鈥檚 just a family heirloom.鈥�
Berman also hauled a few bags to bring to a friend鈥檚 home, where she will stay for the foreseeable future. Contractors prowled up and down the street in high trucks, but from what Berman said, there was no semblance of a government response from any level of government.
鈥淢any parts of Fort Lauderdale were destroyed. Edgewood 鈥� everything that belongs to everyone, their home and everything in it was destroyed, and yet there鈥檚 a concert going on,鈥� she said, referring to the annual Tortuga Music Festival that took place last weekend.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just happening because of tourism and nobody actually cares about the people that live here. The people that live here and work here and have families 鈥� and there are families that are homeless right now in the shopping plaza across the street, and dogs who drowned and nobody cares,鈥� she said.
Boots on the ground
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis told SA国际传谋 he understands residents are frustrated, but that the city has had 鈥渂oots on the ground鈥� as soon as it could.
The city estimates 900 residents were rescued from flood waters during the peak of the storm. The city has also opened two shelters for displaced residents, and is moving them to 鈥渁lternatives鈥� to shelters as soon as it can.
The Tortuga Music Festival on Fort Lauderdale Beach was temporarily evacuated after local officials issued an emergency weather alert. About 60,000 people attended the concert.
鈥淎 lot of these folks did not have flood insurance, so I don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going to happen to them, to be honest.鈥�Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis
On the criticism that the city should have shut down the festival while residents still had water in their homes, Trantalis said: 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 shut down a Tortuga Festival. The area where it took place was not affected by the floods, and the city would have been sued for millions of dollars if it took that route.鈥�
The state of Florida has deployed pumps and vacuums to Edgewood and other neighborhoods to bring and keep the water levels down. Federal agents with FEMA 鈥� the Federal Emergency Management Agency 鈥� are on the scene doing damage assessments, trying to figure out if federal aid might be needed.
鈥淧eople need to realize that the city itself is essentially homeless,鈥� said Trantalis. 鈥淐ity Hall is not a safe building, you can鈥檛 use it right now.鈥�
But the mayor said his concern remains with residents who saw their family homes and possessions destroyed in an instant.
鈥淎 lot of these folks did not have flood insurance, so I don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going to happen to them, to be honest,鈥� said Trantalis.
'Everything is destroyed'
When the storm hit, Jamilette Gonzalez was in Puerto Rico for her grandmother鈥檚 funeral. She saw the flooding on the news, but had not seen it with her own eyes until catching the flight back home.
She walked through thigh high water with her yorkie Coco in her hands. The home had already flooded once since she bought it in 2020, she said, but her flood insurance policy helped her repair and rebuild the home.
鈥淚t鈥檚 terrible,鈥� said Gonzalez.
The inside of her home was still covered in shin-high water. A brand new freezer was tossed on the side, damaged or likely broken by the flood. As she opened the kitchen door, the full scale of the catastrophe hit her.
鈥淥h my God,鈥� she whispered to herself. 鈥�Ay dios.鈥�
鈥淚 cannot tell you what I feel right now. This is a nightmare. It is. Now I don鈥檛 have nothing. [Neither do} my kids 鈥� as you can see. Look, that鈥檚 their room,鈥� she said.
Inside the room, mud and sediment covered two tiny mattresses. The act of walking through the home left footprints of sediment on the tile floor. The walls were noticeably inflated after soaking up flood waters.
鈥淭he walls are destroyed. I don鈥檛 have words. I don鈥檛 know what to say. I just came here to see if at least I can save something, but as you can see, no. Everything is destroyed,鈥� said Gonzalez.
In the days since, the flood waters have receded, but the beds, the couch, the walls 鈥� they鈥檙e wet and soggy, unfit for habitation.
Gonzalez, her husband and two children are now staying with her mother-in-law at an apartment elsewhere in Fort Lauderdale. Much to her relief, the apartment is on the second floor.
