A tropical disturbance that brought a to much of South Florida delayed flights at two of the region's largest airports and left vehicles waterlogged and stalled in some of the lowest-lying streets.
鈥淟ooked like the beginning of a zombie movie,鈥� said Ted Rico, a tow truck driver who spent much of Wednesday night and Thursday morning helping to clear the streets of stalled vehicles. 鈥淭here鈥檚 cars littered everywhere, on top of sidewalks, in the median, in the middle of the street, no lights on. Just craziness, you know. Abandoned cars everywhere.鈥�
Rico, of One Master Trucking Corp., was born and raised in Miami and said he was ready for the emergency.
鈥淵ou know when it's coming,鈥� he said. 鈥淓very year it鈥檚 just getting worse, and for some reason people just keep going through the puddles.鈥�
READ MORE: Flood risk for South Florida extended through Friday
Travelers across the area were trying to adjust their plans on Thursday morning. since Tuesday, with more predicted over the next few days.
Ticket and security lines snaked around a domestic concourse at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport just before noon Thursday. The travel boards showed about half of that terminal鈥檚 flights had been canceled or postponed.
Bill Carlisle, a Navy petty officer first class, had spent his morning trying to catch a flight back to Norfolk, Virginia. He had arrived at Miami International Airport at about 6:30 a.m., but 90 minutes later he was still in line and realized he couldn鈥檛 get his bags checked and through security in time to catch his flight.
鈥淚t was a zoo,鈥� said Carlisle, a public affairs specialist. He was speaking for himself, not the Navy. 鈥淣othing against the (airport) employees 鈥� there is only so much they can do.鈥�
So he used his phone to book an afternoon flight out of Fort Lauderdale. He took a shuttle the 20 miles north, only to find that flight had been canceled. He was now heading back to Miami for a 9 p.m. flight, hoping it wouldn鈥檛 get canceled by the heavy rains expected later in the day. He was resigned, not angry.
鈥淛ust a long day sitting in airports,鈥� Carlisle said. 鈥淭his is kind of par for the course for government travel.鈥�
Wednesday's blocked roads, floated vehicles and even on their way to Stanley Cup games in Canada against the Edmonton Oilers.
Storm pushes across Florida
The disorganized storm system was pushing across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico at roughly the same time as the early June start of hurricane season, which this year is in recent memory amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity.
The disturbance has not reached cyclone status and was given only a slight chance to form into a tropical system once it moves into the Atlantic Ocean after crossing Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center.
READ MORE: Rainy deluge in South Florida blocks roads, delays flights and floods homes
In Hallandale Beach, Alex Demchemko, was walking his Russian spaniel Lex along the still-flooded sidewalks near the Airbnb where he鈥檚 lived after arriving from Russia last month to seek asylum in the U.S.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 come out from our apartment, but we had to walk with our dog,鈥� Demchemko said. 鈥淎 lot of flashes, raining, a lot of floating cars and a lot of left cars without drivers, and there was a lot of water on the streets. It was kind of catastrophic.鈥�
On Thursday morning, Daniela Urrieche, 26, was bailing water out of her SUV, which got stuck on a flooded street as she drove home from work on Wednesday afternoon.
鈥淚n the nine years that I鈥檝e lived here, this has been the worst,鈥� she said. 鈥淓ven in a hurricane, streets were not as bad as it was in the past 24 hours.鈥�
The flooding wasn鈥檛 limited to the streets. Charlea Johnson spent Wednesday night at her Hallandale Beach home barreling water into the sink and toilet.
鈥淭he water just started flooding in the back and flooding in the front,鈥� Johnson said.
State of emergency
By Wednesday evening, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and mayors in Fort Lauderdale , Hollywood and Miami-Dade County each declared a state of emergency.
It's already been a wet and blustery week in Florida. In Miami, about 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell Tuesday and 7 inches (17 centimeters) fell in Miami Beach, according to the National Weather Service. Hollywood got about 5 inches (12 centimeters).
More rain was forecast for the rest of the week, with some areas getting another 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain.
The western side of the state, much of which has been in , also got some major rainfall. Nearly 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters) of rain fell Tuesday at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, the weather service says, and flash flood warnings were in effect in those areas as well.
Forecasts predict an unusually busy hurricane season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates there is an 85% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season will be above average, predicting between 17 and 25 named storms in the coming months including up to 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes. An average season has 14 named storms.
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Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg and Stephany Matat, in Hallandale Beach, contributed to this story.
