Scene of confusion at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport

The scene at and around Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport remained one of confusion Friday evening, about seven hours after a multiple shooting in a baggage claim area left five people dead and eight injured.

As of about 8 p.m., the last of the evacuated passengers who spent hours sitting on the tarmac outside, awaiting instructions from authorities, were being escorted through the airport to buses that would take them to one of two staging areas - a local convention center or a port - said passenger Jennifer Erixon, who was returning home to Denver from a business trip in Miami.

She said as she and other passengers walked through the airport Friday night, she could see evidence of the chaos that happened earlier.

"The actual scene included abandoned suitcases, purses, phones, bar stools overturned at the bar," said Erixon, 41, who works in real estate finance. "It was very, very chaotic."

Authorities told the passengers that they could not pick through the items to find their effects and that a contractor would return their lost purses, cell phones, luggage and other items to them within a week, said Erixon, who left her suitcase inside the airport when the trouble erupted.

The incident unfolded at about 1 p.m.

Erixon said she'd already passed through security and was sitting in a United club when employees very matter-of-factly told everyone to take cover. She heard shots and then an announcement over airport loudspeakers that the airport was being evacuated. People ran outside where the scene was chaotic, Erixon said. People cried, small groups would suddenly start running and others sat on the ground. Southwest Airlines brought out snack trucks and handed out water, and used machinery to cart portable toilets to the area from other parts of the airport, Erixon said.

"I think what I am impressed by is the amount of patience that people are demonstrating in these situations," Erixon said. "People are calm and understanding. It's a massive situation. People are doing the best that they can."

In those hours that the airport was supposed to be evacuated, 9-1-1 operators were getting occasional calls into the evening from people who said they were still inside, Dominique Mathis, a communications operator with the Broward County Sheriff's Office, told USA TODAY.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic still surrounded the facility that sees 800 flights a day, Mathis said.

"We're still treating it as an active incident at this moment," she said. "I know at the airport, everything is out of service."

Law enforcement was sweeping Terminal 2, where the shooting took place, reported the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

In the meantime, the airport remained on complete lockdown -- no one in and no one out -- as of 6:40 p.m. ET, Jeff Myers, a public information officer working with the airport communications team, told USA TODAY.

Activity inside the airport was pretty much limited to law enforcement and interviews of witnesses, Levy said.

"There are people being corralled by investigators in certain areas," Levy said. "There were people that were inside the airport that went outside when the shots rang out, so the police department at the airport has worked to get everyone on buses that are out on the tarmac and should be taking everybody to a staging area."

Flights are not coming in or out of the airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The agency also said it ordered a ground stop for flights headed for Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood.

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said via Twitter that he was at the airport. Immediately after the incident, Fleischer, who worked with the younger President Bush, tweeted, "Shots have been fired. Everyone is running."

Shortly after, Fleischer tweeted an update. "All seems calm now but the police aren't letting anyone out of the airport - at least not the area where I am."

That was Fleischer's last tweet, at about 1:30 p.m.

A registered nurse returning from aid work in Haiti back home to Philomath, Oregon, found herself in the middle of the melee and was posting frequent updates to Facebook.

At about 1:30 p.m. ET, Aslan Rentz Noakes first posted, "Landed in Ft Lauderdale, arriving just in time for a shooting at the next terminal over. Sheesh. I feel safer in Haiti."

She later wrote, "Suddenly we heard screaming in our terminal and everyone was running and ducking for cover...then we saw people running out the jet bridges."

Noakes posted a photo of people sitting on the tarmac or walking along the tarmac. At another point, she posted a photo of herself sitting on the tarmac and called the experience "surreal."

At 6 p.m., Noakes posted a photo of a crowd of people, presumably outside on the tarmac. "The herd is starting to move ... not really sure where we're going."

She did not respond to a request posted to her Facebook page to be interviewed.