‘Like the ocean was on Las Olas’: South Florida inundated with flash flooding and still more rain

South Floridians woke up Thursday morning to their homes flooded, streets gridlocked with abandoned cars and rescue efforts underway after nearly 26 inches of rain fell in a period of less than seven hours. And the rain kept coming Thursday evening, dumping more rain on already flooded roads.

Paul Guerrero and his family joined thousands of area residents taking stock of the damage left behind by the storm that forced courts and schools to close.

As the waterline rose toward the front door of his home in Fort Lauderdale’s Edgewood community, Guerrero, 58, his wife and his 31-year-old son placed towels under their doors, just in case late Wednesday.

Guerrero, who has lived on the 1000 block of Southwest 29th Street for 26 years, watched the water infiltrate his home. He worried for his eight cats, two dogs, two turtles and an African Grey parrot as the water came in under the door, through the windows, through the very walls, until there was almost 3 feet in the house.

Finally, about 10 a.m., a stranger in a swamp buggy came to his door and asked if he needed help, Guerrero accepted.

He was able to fit his family, including his brother-in-law, all eight cats and the two dogs onto the buggy, but had to leave the two turtles and the parrot, hoping they’ll stay safe until he gets back.

While severe thunderstorms moved over the saturated areas Thursday, the National Weather Service forecast it would bring less than 1 inch of rain.

[ RELATED: Fort Lauderdale’s unprecedented 26 inches of rain could break state and national records ]

The rainfall appears to have broken a Florida daily record set for a single location (23.28 inches observed in Key West, Florida, back on Nov. 11, 1980), according to Accuweather’s chief meteorologist, Jonathan Porter. A flash flood emergency had been extended to at least 8 p.m. Thursday for Fort Lauderdale, Lauderhill, Hollywood, Dania Beach and Sunrise.

[ RELATED: Fort Lauderdale airport closed until Friday, stranding hundreds of passengers ]

Major roadways and intersections were impassable, to say nothing of the side roads people would normally use as detours. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport closed about 5 p.m. Wednesday, and officials hope to reopen it Friday morning.

The Henry E. Kinney Tunnel in downtown Fort Lauderdale remained closed Thursday and parts of Broward Boulevard were closed to traffic as well, although water was receding in other parts of the city and traffic was moving.

The city called residents in the middle of the afternoon with a recorded message asking them to avoid driving until the water recedes.

[ WATCH: Stunning drone footage shows river of stranded cars on downtown Fort Lauderdale streets ]

Hector Ortega, 36, of Davie, didn’t need the reminder. After picking up his daughter from school Wednesday, he tried to drive home to his neighborhood just northeast of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near Hollywood. He didn’t make it.

“It had already started flooding into the car, so we decided to just bounce and get the rest of the way,” he said. “Then we hit a speed bump, and the water went above the headlights, and that was it. The car submerged and shut down.”

Ortega and his daughter walked the rest of the way home, a few blocks in the pouring rain. The water didn’t quite make it into their house, but it got close. The car remains stranded.

Tow truck companies across the county were bombarded with calls from drivers like Ortega.

“The calls started last night and they never let up. We had to stop taking them at 8 o’clock,” said Joel Soto, owner of Only Towing. “One of my trucks went down, got disabled. This morning we had 120 calls waiting. We’re down to 66 now.”

Westway Towing has responded to nearly 500 calls for service in Fort Lauderdale since noon Wednesday, Vice President Darren Wells said. The company had to shut down its Fort Lauderdale facility because it couldn’t take any more cars.

[ RELATED: Broward County flooding: Everything you need to know about what’s open and closed ]

Most of those cars won’t be running again. At least 35 Teslas were “dead in the water,” Wells said. Some of them had water up to their sunroofs.

“There was no warning,” Wells said. “People had no warning. They were at work, chilling, and boom.”

Some drivers Wells helped went downtown before the rain, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

“One guy was like, ‘Dude, I didn’t even know a storm was coming,’” Wells said. “‘I’m eating dinner and all of a sudden it was like the ocean was on Las Olas Boulevard.’”

[ RELATED: Historic rain and flooding results in 820 auto insurance claims so far — and that’s just one company ]

For those whose cars were abandoned on Fort Lauderdale roads, Westway has likely towed them or will soon, Wells said. He estimates there are at least another 100 cars still out there. His team planned another sweep at Thursday night to remove the remaining cars.

Nancy Andrade, 46, went to sleep early Wednesday night, to be “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” for an interview for a desperately needed job in Weston. All was well in her Dania Beach home shortly before 9 p.m.

By about 6 a.m., Andrade woke, swung her feet out of the bed and heard a splash. Did her toilet overflow? Was her AC leaking?

“I turned the light on and saw my entire bedroom was covered in water, and I looked at my bedroom door and I see what looks like ripples coming from underneath, from my living room,” Andrade said.

Every corner of her home off of U.S. 441 and Griffin Road had water inside, she said, as much as six inches at the deepest point. Boxes that were on one side of the living room before she went to sleep were now on the other. Her dogs were sitting on top of a garbage bag of clothes, soaked and scared.

Andrade struggled to pull her door open in the morning darkness. The downpour flooded her yard, and the water, dirt, grass and debris started flowing inside.

Dania Beach saw over 17 inches of rain between 7 a.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service Miami, and two tornadoes were confirmed near Dania Beach about 3:30 p.m. and about 10 p.m.

While the tornado earlier in the afternoon caused minimal damage in a small area, the later tornado touched down just south of the airport and moved half a mile west, reaching peak winds of 85 mph, according to the weather service.

It damaged trees on Old Griffin Road before hitting a mobile home community east of Interstate 95, leaving damaged metal siding and roofs throughout the mobile home park, the weather service said.

“It seems like this is a situation that a lot of people were affected by and not many people were prepared for, in spite of the warnings,” Andrade said. “We get into a sense of complacency sometimes when we’re so used to it.”

Andrade, who was recently laid off, thought for a moment Thursday morning that she might have still been able to make it to the job interview, despite the fact that the clothes she laid out ended up in the mucky water. Getting to the interview would be a problem, she realized.

“I try to find some bright spot, and right now, it’s really hard,” she said.

Areas of Miami-Dade County have significantly flooded over the past few days, requiring additional temporary pumps to be added to permanent pumps at several intersections throughout the City of Miami, city officials said in a tweet. More than 13 inches of rain fell in Coconut Grove between Wednesday and Thursday morning. Earlier in the week, Miami Police officials said the majority of Overtown was flooded after just one day of rain.

Palm Beach County was spared from the brunt of the deluge, with Lantana recording the most rain in the county between Tuesday and Wednesday night with 1.8 inches.

The chance of rain will drop to 30% Friday, and Saturday is expected to be sunny with a high of 84 degrees.

Staff writers David Lyons and Kathy Laskowski contributed to this report.