Alligator Alcatraz opened ready for a hurricane – but not a summer shower

Syra Ortiz Blanes, Ana Ceballos and Alex Harris, Miami Herald on Jul 2, 2025

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MIAMI — Alligator Alcatraz opened Tuesday without a water view. Then it rained.

Shortly after President Donald Trump left the brand new detention facility to hold immigrants in the middle of the Everglades, a garden-variety South Florida summer rainstorm started.

The water seeped into the site — the one that earlier in day the state’s top emergency chief had boasted was ready to withstand the winds of a “high-end” Category 2 hurricane — and streamed all over electrical cables on the floor.

“For those people that don’t think we’re taking that into consideration. This is Florida, by the way,” Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, had told reporters earlier in the middle of Trump’s visit. “We have a hurricane plan.”

But perhaps not a plan for about an inch-and-a-half of rain, which is what fell over the site on Tuesday afternoon, according to estimates from the National Weather Service in Miami.

Video footage from Spectrum News television reporter Jason Delgado showed the flooding within Alligator Alcatraz. Another witness said the rain lasted about 45 minutes. The storm was so strong that at one point the roof was shaking as the rain pounded down, drowning out Gov. Ron DeSantis’ voice as he spoke to reporters.

Rainfall seeped through the edges of the facility as the roofs and walls trembled. Drips leaked from above a door frame. The water spread under poles hoisting the Florida and U.S. flags.

On Wednesday, the division of emergency management said contractors had worked on the flooding issue.

“Overnight, the vendors went back and tightened any seams at the base of the structures that allowed water intrusion during the heavy storm, which was minimal,” Stephanie Hartman, the deputy director of communications for the division of emergency management said in a statement.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he hoped detainees could arrive at Alligator Alcatraz as early as Wednesday.

An appraisal of the Miami-Dade County-owned site from May said the area is prone to deep flooding, even outside of hurricane season.

Florida tasked its emergency department with the building of Alligator Alcatraz. Guthrie said that there were backup generators, a staff village that could house up to 1,000 people, hot meals 24/7, and a medical facility with a pharmacy services. There are also on-site emergency fire and medical services.

“Getting things done quickly, efficiently and correctly is at the core of our mission,” Guthrie said before the rain came. “We simply just want to be the best at what we do in the nation.”