A newly built detention center in the Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” was showcased on Tuesday with a high-profile visit by President Trump. By day’s end, the huge new facility intended to house illegal aliens had already flooded.

Hours after the president and Governor DeSantis toured the facility, a typical South Florida rainstorm hit the site. Water quickly seeped into tent structures designed to house as many as 3,000 detainees, pooling around the bases of poles holding the American and Florida flags and streaming toward electrical cables on the floor. 

Video footage from a Spectrum News reporter, Jason Delgado, showed water infiltration under tent seams and leaks from door frames. 

The executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, had spoken confidently earlier on Tuesday, declaring that the facility was “hurricane-ready” and capable of withstanding Category 2 storm winds of up to 110 mph. “For those people that don’t think we’re taking that into consideration, this is Florida, by the way,” Mr. Guthrie said during Mr. Trump’s visit.

However, the rainfall — estimated at just one-and-a-half inches by the National Weather Service in Miami — caused significant water intrusion.

The detention facility, situated at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport deep in the heart of the Everglades, has been positioned as a key component of Florida’s immigration enforcement strategy. The site can be used to expedite immigration cases and streamline deportations directly from the property via an existing airstrip.

However, critics have raised environmental concerns about the site, including its documented susceptibility to flooding even during non-hurricane conditions. 

While installed in record time under Florida’s emergency management directives, the tent city appeared to act as a “dress rehearsal” for the state’s broader hurricane response protocols. Mr. Guthrie described the site as “a perfect state logistics exercise” for hurricane season, despite its failure to perform under minimal rainfall.

The storm, which lasted about 45 minutes, caused rainwater to penetrate the edges of the tents and stream under support structures, as another video showed. At the height of the downpour, the rain pounded so heavily that it drowned out Mr. DeSantis’s voice as he addressed reporters inside one of the tents. Witnesses said the walls shook as the storm continued, jeopardizing what was promoted hours earlier as a state-of-the-art secure facility.

By Wednesday, contractors had worked to remedy the flooding. According to the deputy director of communications for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Stephanie Hartman, vendors had “tightened seams at the base of the structures” to address the water intrusion concerns and declared the adjustments “minimal,” the Miami Herald reported.