Originally Posted by MrAndy1369

Here's a couple possibilities:

a) Maybe leadership was worried that someone would take advantage of the situation and plant something in the sterile area?
b) Maybe the sterile area was flooded or had damage inside? Or all the restaurants were closed, anyway.

With that said, the TSO's could have came up with a few possible solutions:

a) Offer to bring food/drinks to customers from inside security.
b) Ask the people inside if they would be willing to bring out food/drinks, or even sell them.
c) Implement patdowns for everyone going past security (if the machines weren't working) or just suspend ID requirements (after all, if people are cleared during screening, they're safe).

A little thinking outside the box would have helped the situation. Really not defending TSA here, but maybe they had their own reasons, too?