The Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise will remain closed for the second straight day Thursday because of flooding in the surrounding area due to record-breaking rainfall across South Florida.
Sunrise Police and mall officials announced the move on Twitter just before 8 a.m. after spending the afternoon and evening hours Wednesday seeing if the waters would go down in depth.
Officials said the area received another inch and a half of rain overnight and has received 15 inches of rain in the past three days.
It's the first time the mall has closed because of weather since Hurricane Matthew last October.
A spokeswoman for the mall released a statement to NBC 6 regarding the closure on Wednesday saying they would reopen "once the heavy rain stops, the water level decreases, and access to the mall’s entry is safe."
Large sections of the mall's parking lot were covered in water but none of the mall buildings have been affected by the heavy rain, mall officials said.
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"It's deep out there, it's all over flooded," mall worker Sammy Davis said. "It's up to my waist wading out there, had to stop us from working, you know."
Police urged drivers to use caution when driving through flooded areas.
"We are from Germany and we want to go to the biggest shopping center in the United States and now it's closed. It's bad," tourist Sebastian Weber said Wednesday. "It's very much rain, I've never seen so much rain before and I was hoping we have only sunshine here."
The area received over seven inches of rainfall during a 24 hour period after additional rainfall earlier this week. Forecasts call for additional rain around the mall intermittently for the remainder of the week.
