Operations Recovering At Atlanta Airport Following Power Outage

ATLANTA (CBSNewYork/AP) — Airport operations were resuming Monday morning in Atlanta, a day after a crippling power outage left thousands stranded.

Passengers were being urged Monday morning to check with airlines for flight information at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where more than 1,000 flights were grounded Sunday.

The ticketing and baggage areas were a bit backed up Monday morning, but security lines were moving quickly. Most travelers were patient as the world's busiest airport recovered from the outage.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines was the hardest hit airline. In a tweet, the airline urged travelers to use its mobile app or website for booking assistance and updated flight status.

Delta was also allowing people traveling to, from or through Atlanta through Tuesday to make a one-time change for no fee.

A sudden power outage that Georgia Power said was caused by a fire in an underground electrical facility brought the airport to a standstill Sunday about 1 p.m., stranding passengers both inside the terminal and on planes on the runway.

"We were literally carrying old people down the escalators and up escalators and carrying wheelchairs and my heart was racing because I'm scared for these people's lives and we are just like random people trying to evacuate one of the largest airports, or most populated airports, in the world," said passenger Laura Ward.

All outgoing flights were halted and arriving planes were held on the ground at their point of departure. International flights were being diverted, officials said.

"I literally spent a whole seven hours on an airplane without food or water and then they finally let us off and then I walk into a dark room where everyone is sleeping on the floor," said passenger Mariam Gharbi.

By Sunday evening, Delta had already canceled nearly 900 flights and another 300 early Monday, nearly all of them in Atlanta, according to tracking service FlightAware.com.

American Airlines canceled 24 departures and an equal number of arrivals, said spokesman Ross Feinstein. The airline also diverted three planes that were headed to Atlanta when the outage struck, sending them instead to Dallas, Nashville and back to Philadelphia.

At Southwest Airlines, about 70 Atlanta departures out of 120 scheduled for Sunday were canceled, an airline spokesman said in an email. United Airlines and JetBlue Airways were also among carriers reporting delays or cancellations.

The FAA said the tower could operate normally but flights were affected because airport equipment in the terminals was not working.

Airport workers were distributing bottled water, and Dunkin' Donuts was giving out doughnuts. Chick-fil-A, which is usually closed on Sundays, opened to provide meals for travelers, according to the airport's Twitter feed.

Officer Lisa Bender of the Atlanta Police Department said officers were at the airport to help with crowd control and managing traffic around the airport.

The city of Atlanta provided shuttle service to the Georgia Convention Center on Sunday for travelers needing a place to stay.

By midnight, Georgia Power was able to restore electricity. According to a statement, the utility believes a piece of equipment in an underground electrical facility may have failed, causing the fire. The fire was next to equipment for a backup system, causing that to also fail.

"Because of the fumes that came through the tunnels, we had to take some time before the team from Georgia Power could access the tunnel," said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

The statement from Georgia Power said also said "no personnel or passengers were in danger at any time."

No areas outside of the airport were affected by the power loss. The utility said there are "many redundant systems in place" to ensure the power supply to the airport and that such outages at the airport "are very rare."

The utility thanked people for their patience in a tweet Monday morning and said all essential services were restored and that an investigation into the cause of the outage was ongoing.

Hartsfield-Jackson, which serves 104 million passengers a year, is the world's busiest airport, a distinction it has held since 1998.

The airport serves an average of 275,000 passengers daily, according to its website. Nearly 2,500 planes arrive and depart each day.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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• Magdalena Doris