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"This Could Happen Anywhere," Tourists Not Wary Of Visiting Florida

The Terminal 2 baggage claim at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport is up and running again.

The routine, comfortably familiar:  a red light flashes, the luggage parade begins. Golf clubs. Military duffels. Monotone bags sporting colorful scarves. All searching for their owners – mostly Canadians coming in from the cold.

Credit Peter Haden / WLRN
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WLRN
Delaney Rickert-Hall, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, waits for her flight home at the Terminal 2 baggage claim at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Jan. 9, 2017.

“I’m here to get some sun and enjoy Miami,” said Morris Nailer of Montreal, who was picking up his bag.

Nailer says American airports should have a second security screening between baggage claim and the street.

“Anybody could come in here,” said Nailer.

But that would not have prevented Friday’s shooting.

Nailer’s countryman, Francine Cleroux, of Montreal, says nothing could have prevented the shooting.

“I think the government did whatever they can,” Cleroux said. “It can happen anywhere. No reason why.”

Only carousel 1 was operating in Terminal 2 Monday. A floor-to-ceiling black curtain keeps people and eyes from what lies beyond.

Delaney Rickert-Hall was sitting next to it -- propped against a wall under a Christmas garland, charging her phone for the flight back to Ottawa.

“I kinda just realized that it was here,” she said, gesturing to the area beyond the curtain where the shooting took place. “The security seems fine, there’s people around so...it seems like they’re looking out for stuff, I guess.”

And like Cleroux, many people at the baggage claim had arrived at the same conclusion.

“This won’t discourage me from coming to Florida,” said Cleroux. “This could happen anywhere.”

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