Used IBC totes in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

What the sources say about Fort Lauderdale

Port Everglades handled a record 1,167,552 TEUs in fiscal year 2025 and moved 131,855,261 barrels of petroleum products; it lies within Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Dania Beach plus unincorporated Broward.

Wikipedia says the boating industry supports over 109,000 jobs in Broward County, the city is home port for 42,000 boats and it has 165 miles of waterways.

On April 12, 2023 the city received 25.91 inches of rain in a day, causing historic flooding.

More background on Fort Lauderdale

Wikipedia gives average annual precipitation at 60.95 inches, most of it from May through October, and says the city has about 7 miles of Atlantic beaches.

ZIP codes and neighbors

33301, 33304, 33305, 33306, 33308, 33309, 33311, 33312, 33315, 33316. Nearest: Dania Beach (33,076), Pompano Beach (118,104), Hollywood (159,073).

What that means for totes

Our reading: marine businesses are the clearest local buyers, using totes for cleaners, coolants and wash water. Rinse and inspect any tote that has sat near salt air.

The 2023 rainfall figure is a reason to set totes high and strapped, with an overflow route.

Waterways, a port and an airport give Fort Lauderdale more edges than most cities. Our reading: the marina, the boatyard and the warehouse each have different gate and dock rules, and the flood history means every outdoor tote needs strapping and a raised pad.

Before you buy in Fort Lauderdale, check your elevation and your seawall. After a day like April 12, 2023, canal-side lots can flood quickly, so keep the tote on a raised pad, strap it and keep valves capped.

Run the numbers for a boating city. Wikipedia counts 42,000 boats with the city as their home port and 165 miles of waterways inside its limits, which works out to about 250 boats for every mile of waterway. The April 2023 storm dropped 25.91 inches in a day, which is about 42 percent of the 60.95 inches the city averages in a whole year.

Our reading: both numbers argue for a raised pad and a strapped cage. A boat owner's tote gets splashed and shaded by a dock, a boatyard's tote sits near fuel and solvents, and a household's tote sits near a canal. In every case a tote that stands beside water should have a screen, a cap and a plan for a day when the water comes up.

With about 7 miles of Atlantic beaches and 165 miles of inland waterways, the city has an unusually long shoreline for its size. Our reading: tote storage by a canal needs the same attention to salt, mosquitoes and surge as one by the sea.

Practical consequence: a marina tenant should ask the marina about wash-down water, a boatyard tenant about solvent storage, and a canal-side homeowner about seawall height. Each answer changes where a tote may stand, and none is covered by a general rule, so ask the owner or the city before you place anything heavy near the water.

Seasonal note: the city's rain falls mostly between May and October, which overlaps the hurricane season, so a tote placed in April should already have its screen, its strap and its overflow route in place.

A last check before you write: confirm your ZIP code from the list below, note whether the site is waterfront, and note whether you have a pallet jack, a forklift or only a hand truck to move the tote. Those three answers shape the reply more than the size of tote does.

Worked example for a canal-side house: 60.95 inches a year times UF/IFAS's 0.62 gallon per square foot per inch is about 37,800 gallons on each 1,000 square feet of roof, roughly 137 tote-fills of 275 gallons in theory.

Our reading: the canals and marinas around Fort Lauderdale make marine use the obvious tote story. A yacht service or boatyard may hold cleaners, bilge products or fresh water, and a tote that held fuel or bilge liquid is a different case from one that held rinse water. Salt air shortens the life of a steel cage, so describe the finish.