Power Outage in Atlanta Disrupts Travel Across the US

Bad news for travelers with flights going in and out of Atlanta airport. It seems that a massive power outage has created chaos as hundreds of flights have been canceled as a result.

Passengers were left stranded in dark terminals and out on the tarmac as Georgia Power says that a fire caused extensive damage to an underground electrical facility that impacted substations serving the airport. Power was finally restarted after an 11-hour power outage that resulted in hundreds of flights being canceled.

Delta Air Lines, whose hub is Atlanta, canceled 450 flights. Other airlines affected by the outage were also forced to cancel flights, including Southwest, American, and United. In total over 1,000 flights were canceled and delayed as a result of the massive power failure.

The power was eventually restored after midnight on Sunday, creating a jam of passengers lining up at security as another 400 flights were canceled for Monday as well.

Atlanta is a major hub for travel in the US and the cancellations are scheduled to end by Monday afternoon. However, weather issues could further complicate things and cause further issues and delays once normalcy is restored. Although the airport and airlines are working to get people flying again, the ripple effect from the outage will likely take several days to fully get through.

The cause of the fire that caused the severe outage is still unknown. Georgia Power reportedly knew of the issue before 1 pm on Sunday but the intensity of the fire prevented crews from putting it out immediately. The fire caused damage at numerous points and ultimately led to the severe blackout that stranded passengers for half a day or more.

Around 30,000 were affected by the power outage, which led to grounded flights, shut-downs at security checkpoints and other issues. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

Passenger maintained their cool for hours while stuck on planes and faced unpleasant conditions when finally allowed to deplane.

Continue to check flights if you are flying on Monday (and possibly at other times this week).