Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport reopens for operations
FORT LAUDERDALE - Friday was a day of joy for a family of three whose vacation in South Florida was extended far more than they expected.
"We were stranded here from Wednesday, all that night; we slept at the terminal," Angelica Pacheco told CBS News Miami's Ivan Taylor, as she walked through FLL with her mother and sister.
They live in California, but that's not where they were headed this Friday night.
"We're flying to Minnesota, from there we're going to Los Angeles," said Pacheco.
Other passengers like Connor Wolfe, whose destination is New York City said that as much as likes South Florida he misses his home "So, I am flying to Orlando, and from there I will continue heading north."
They are all very hopeful they can be home this weekend but at the same time concerned because Airport officials said there were more than 200 flight cancelations as of Friday afternoon.
All this while, Arlene Satchell, PIO for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport announced only the south runway was working.
"The north runway, our oldest runway we made a major renovation to it in 2019 because of the geographic position of it, took more water in the damaging sense of more of settlement."
Meanwhile, Lamar Fisher, Broward County mayor says reopening the runway may take a while.
"Anywhere between a couple of weeks to maybe a month, we have to wait until the water recedes and once that occurs, we can assess if there's any damage at all."
In a tweet on Friday morning, the airport suggested travelers to call their airlines or check online the status of their flights before heading to FLL.