"Conditions improve in hard-hit areas," Fort Lauderdale mayor provides update

MIAMI - Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean J. Trantalis issued a social media message saying conditions in the hardest hit areas from the rains improved overnight. 

CBS News Miami visited one of the areas, Melrose Park, on Thursday morning.

"As soon as the water started, maybe an hour or two later, the water started coming into the house," shared Mary Fox, a local homeowner. "We were like wait a minute, what's going on?"

CBS News Miami's Joe Gorchow met Fox at a local comfort station in Fort Lauderdale at Shirley Park. The city has three setups to provide food, water, showers, and more to flood victims recovering. The one by Melrose Park looked like a river just last week.

"Couldn't use the bathroom in the home," explained Fox. "We couldn't get out for two days. The only way we could get out was to swim or if you had a boat."

She showed us how the rainwater flowed into her home up to her knees. A house she's lived at for more than 30 years, always with flood insurance.

"If I didn't go that way, I'll have to take that money out of my pocket," said Fox. "You don't know how much damage that's going to be."

"Any homeowner should have one regardless of the zone you live in."

CBS News Miami caught up with Alex Ray who works for John Galt Insurance. He says the floods in Broward County have increased demand for flood coverage.

"Obviously, FL is for Florida," quipped Ray. "We tell people FL stands for flood down here, unfortunately. Moving in from out of state, most people don't realize Florida is pretty flat."

Ray adds now's an excellent time to look into it, whether you're in a low-risk or high-risk area.

"There's a lot of availability in the private market right now," said Ray.

Opening back up, he says, after companies paid out Hurricane Ian claims.

Last week, the historic floods caught Washington Park homeowner Patrick Alston by surprise.

"Amount of rain caught us by surprise because we never thought it could get that high," said Alston.

Alston does not have flood insurance for the home he's owned for more than 30 years.

"Flood insurance, the price fluctuates so bad a lot of people can't afford it," mentioned Alston.

His home escaped significant damage. Alston will only test fate once.

"You don't want to have to result to plan c, d, e, f, and g," said Alston. "You want to know what Plan A is. I have flood insurance, and my house is taken care of."

Alston now enters the market. Ray shares he's still determining how the historic floods will impact pricing in the private sector.

"They'll probably plug a lot of what happened in Fort Lauderdale to see where that flooding claims came through and what they saw and adjust accordingly," mentioned Ray.

If you cannot find coverage in the private sector, Ray says you can get coverage through FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program. Ray tells us that policy amounts for that program or in the private market vary from as low as $400 annually to $25,000 in the most high-risk flood zones.

In:
• Fort Lauderdale
• Florida
• Flooding