Eight-day build of 'Alligator Alcatraz' sparks safety concerns - as hurricane season looms
Sky News' Data and Forensics team has verified footage posted on social media that shows water covering the ground near electricity cables during a storm as the first detainees were due to arrive.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), run by Governor Ron DeSantis, posted on X that detainees were at the site on 3 July just before 1pm local time (6pm UK time).
Donald Trump held a tour of the facility on 1 July that took journalists around "Alligator Alcatraz". Its name is a reference to both the local reptile population and the former maximum-security Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, California.
The tour showed the rapid construction of the centre, designed to accommodate up to 3,000 detainees. The purpose of the site is to house individuals detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
James Uthmeier, Florida's attorney general, posted on X: "And in just a week, Alligator Alcatraz was built."
Political commentator Benny Johnson, who was on the tour, praised the eight-day turnaround. "I don't think anyone realises how impressive Alligator Alcatraz is," he said.
Amid those positive comments, videos emerged highlighting flooding in the centre, with electricity cables covered with water on the day of the tour.
The flooding was said to have been caused by a small storm. However, the state department claims the structures and tents can withstand category two hurricanes, reaching 110mph winds.
FDEM spokesperson Stephanie Hartman wrote in a statement that "vendors had tightened any seams at the base of the structures that allowed water to come in during the storm". She described the water intrusion as minimal.
Steff Gaulter, a Sky News meteorologist, said: "In the last 10 years, we've seen 13 hurricanes that have hit Florida. Seven of them have been category three or higher.
"As well as needing to know how strong these storms are as they come, it's also very unpredictable, their track can change at the last minute."
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) have said structures in risk category two - which Alligator Alcatraz falls under - need to withstand 121mph wind gusts.
If the housing tents exceed 300 occupants per tent, the guidelines go up to 167mph.
Ms Gaulter explained: "You don't necessarily need a hurricane in order to see a gust of wind over 100mph. In the lowest category of hurricane, category one, the range of winds would be between 74mph and 95mph. But even in that category, you can easily get a gust of wind up to 120mph."
Dr Patrick McSharry, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and former head of catastrophe risk financing at Oxford University, told Sky News that in a hurricane "there's no way that a tent is going to be in any way something that you would advise someone to be in".
"It's more the case of having a plan in place that can be mobilised really fast to get people out of that dangerous situation."
The site is also located in a hurricane-prone region as defined by ASCE.
Discussing building regulations, Dr McSharry said: "We're dealing here potentially with human lives so it's an even more sensitive calculation I think that needs to be made."
Sky News put these concerns to Ron DeSantis and the Florida state department, but did not receive responses.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Sky News: "Alligator Alcatraz is a state-of-the-art facility that will play a critical role in fulfilling the president's promise to get the worst criminal illegal aliens out of America as fast as possible.
"President Trump is grateful to partner with [Homeland] Secretary [Kristi] Noem and Ron DeSantis on this important project."
Satellite imagery obtained by Sky News shows the rapid construction of the centre, which was formerly Dade-Collier Training Airport.
Five days after the centre was announced by Florida's attorney general James Uthmeier, more than 60 new trailers can be seen on the right-hand side of the runway.
Satellite imagery obtained by Sky News also shows that from 24 June to the opening date on 1 July, more than seven large housing tents were put up at the site.
The site is reportedly set to open with 3,000 beds, expanding to 5,000 by early July.
It is also reported that the site will cost an estimated $450m (£330m) per year to operate, with a bed costing $245 (£180) per day.
The bill is reported to be covered by the state of Florida, which plans to get money back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Tessa Petit, director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told Sky News: "It was constructed too [quickly]. This is a sign that we're seeing a disaster [waiting to] happen as we look at it.
"Usual detention centres come up with, you know, their bricks and mortar, right? This is not bricks and mortar. This is just tents and mobile homes that are assembled on an airstrip."
"There's a detention of immigrants in a place that has been in the past ravaged by hurricanes and we're getting into hurricane season," Ms Petit added.
She is concerned that medical support and sanitary provisions, like a sewage system, will not have been properly installed.
"You can't build a sewage system that can sustain 3,000 people in eight days. You can't dig in the Everglades. So, what are going be the additional sanitary conditions?" she said.
There are also sustainability concerns about the site.
The Centre for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit in US District Court to protect the Florida Everglades. They state it is "a reckless plan to build a massive detention centre for people caught in immigration raids".
Tania Galloni, an attorney working with the Centre for Biological Diversity, stated the proposed plan "has not undergone the environmental review required by federal law, and the public has had no chance to provide feedback".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Texas governor says more than 160 people still missing after deadly floods
The governor of the US state of Texas has said at least 161 people are still missing days after flash floods killed more than 100 people across central areas. Greg Abbott spoke at a news conference after taking a helicopter tour of the affected area. Advertisement He said many of those who are not accounted for were staying in state's Hill Country, but did not register at a camp or hotel.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Travel chaos as multiple major US airports ground ALL flights
Flights at several major airports from New York to Dallas have been grounded Tuesday afternoon, sending air travel throughout the US into chaos. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced ground stops for flights leaving New York's John F Kennedy Airport, New Jersey 's Newark Liberty Airport, Baltimore/Washington International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Severe thunderstorms throughout the country caused to temporary pause. A ground delay at Philadelphia International Airport and New York's LaGuardia Airport has also been issued through Tuesday night. This is a developing story. More updates to follow.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Texas sheriff who predicted floods says lives could have been saved
Floodwaters were receding in Texas on Saturday as federal, state and local officials gathered to assess the damage and call for prayer. The rescue workers did a phenomenal job and Texans were working together to help their fellow men, they said. 'Nobody saw this coming,' declared Rob Kelly, the head of Kerr County's local government, depicting the disaster as an unpredictable tragedy. But one retired Texas sheriff knew that was not entirely true. Rusty Hierholzer, who spent 40 years working in Kerr County sheriff's office, warned a decade ago of the need for better alarm systems, similar to tsunami sirens. 'Unfortunately, people don't realize that we are in flash flood alley,' Hierholzer (pictured center), who retired in 2020 after 20 years in the job, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview. He had moved to Kerr County as a teenager in 1975, graduated high school, and volunteered as a horse wrangler at the Heart O' the Hills summer camp before joining the sheriff's office. He recalled the flash floods of 1987 – that killed 10 teenagers at the Pot O' Gold Christian Camp in nearby Comfort, Texas – when he was sheriff. He's still haunted by the memory of having 'spent hours in helicopters pulling kids out of trees here [in] our summer camps'. On Friday, Hierholzer's friend Jane Ragsdale, the director and co-owner of Heart O' the Hills camp, was killed along with at least 27 other children at nearby Camp Mystic. Hierholzer said he lost several friends. From 2016 onwards, he and several county commissioners pushed for the installation of early-warning sirens, alerting residents as the Guadalupe River, which runs from Kerr County to the San Antonio Bay on the Gulf Coast, rose. Their calls were ignored, while the neighboring counties of Kendall and Comal have installed warning sirens. Kerr County, 100 miles northwest of San Antonio, sits on limestone bedrock making the region particularly susceptible to catastrophic floods. Rain totals over the last several days ranged from more than six inches in nearby Sisterdale to upwards of 20 inches in Bertram, further north. In 2016, county leaders and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority (UGRA) commissioned a flood risk study and two years later bid for a $1 million FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant. The proposal included rain and river gauges, public alert infrastructure, and local sirens. But the bid was denied. A second effort in 2020 and a third in 2023 also failed – and local officials balked at the costs of sirens costing between $10,000 and $50,000 each. 'It was probably just, I hate to say the word, priorities,' Tom Moser, a former member of the county commission, told the Wall Street Journal. 'Trying not to raise taxes. We just didn't implement a sophisticated system that gave an early warning system. That's what was needed and is needed.' Kelly, the Kerr County judge, who leads the county commission, told the New York Times: 'We've looked into it before. The public reeled at the cost. Taxpayers won't pay for it.' Asked by the paper if residents might reconsider now, Kelly replied: 'I don't know.' Hierholzer is reluctant to criticize his successors while the rescue efforts are ongoing, and the death toll still rising. 'This is not the time to critique, or come down on all the first responders,' he said. But, he added, the moment will come. 'After all this is over, they will have an 'after the incident accident request' and look at all this stuff. That's what we've always done, every time there was a fire or floods or whatever. We'd look and see what we could do better.' Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, was asked during a news conference on Saturday whether the fact that many did not receive cell phone warnings until 7 am on Friday – two hours after the waters peaked – was a 'fundamental failure of the federal government's responsibility to keep people safe.' Noem said the technology was 'ancient' and that Trump's team was working to update it. 'We know that everyone wants more warning time, and that's why we're working to upgrade the technology that's been neglected for far too long to make sure families have as much advance notice as possible,' she said. Even so, Hierholzer admits he doesn't know if warning sirens would have saved lives. 'If we'd had alarms, sometimes there is no way you can evacuate people out of the zone,' he said. 'How are you going to get all of them out safely? That was always a big concern for us: are you making people safer by telling them to stay or go? And what happened in the floods of '87 was that the workers at the church camp tried to get the kids out of the area, but their bus broke down, and they were swept away.' Maria Tapia, a 64-year-old property manager, would certainly have appreciated more warning. When she went to bed at around 10pm on Thursday night in her single-story home 300ft from the Guadalupe River it was not even raining. 'I sleep very lightly, and I was woken up by the thunder,' she told the Daily Mail. 'Then the really, really heavy rain. It sounded like little stones were pelting my window. My husband woke up and I got out of bed to turn on the light, and the water was already half a foot deep.' She and Felipe quickly got dressed. As they did so, the water rose rapidly. Within 10 minutes it was above their knees. 'We tried to get out of the house but the doors were jammed. It was terrifying. Felipe had to use all his body weight to slam the door and open it to let us out, and then the screen to the porch was jammed shut so he had to kick it down so we could escape. The lights went out soon after and Felipe thought of trying to get in our truck, but the water was coming too fast so we ran up the hill to our neighbors because we could see they still had light. 'It was terrifying,' she adds, choking back tears. 'I kept on thinking: I'm never going to see my grandchildren again.' Returning to her home on Saturday, she found the interior thick with mud and branches. Water had reached the ceiling, and furniture was smashed and strewn into the yard. She was frantic with worry about their two cats, Sylvester and Baby, and their four-month-old sheepdog puppy, Milo - but on returning home found the animals sitting on the roof. 'I've seen flooding before, but never anything like that. It was just monstrous.' Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, has ordered state politicians to return to Austin for a special session on July 21, saying it was 'the way to respond to what happened in Kerrville'. A bill to fund warning systems, House Bill 13, was debated in the state House in April, but never made it to a full vote. Some speculated that the bill could be revived, although Abbott would not comment on their plans. Wes Virdell, a representative whose constituency includes Kerr County, was among those to vote against HB13 in the House. He has spent much of the past two days aiding rescue efforts, but told The Texas Tribune he'd now be in favor of the bill. 'I can tell you in hindsight, watching what it takes to deal with a disaster like this, my vote would probably be different now,' he said. Hierholzer now says all he can do is offer his help. He had texted his successor, Larry Leither, but did not want to get in the way. 'The main thing they need now is for people to stay away,' said Hierholzer. 'First responders can't get to the area if there are sightseers wanting to see all the stuff. That's always a problem: please stay away and let them do their jobs.' He added that Leither 'has his hands full right now', recalling his own time leading the emergency response, and dealing with such heartbreaking scenes. 'He's seeing things he shouldn't have to,' Hierholzer added.
