Burst pipe adds to delay and misery for travellers at JFK Airport
A water pipe break in one of the terminals at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport on Sunday added to delays after a snowstorm stranded thousands of passengers.
The Port Authority said a water pipe that fed a sprinkler system in the privately operated Terminal 4 broke at about 2pm, flooding the building and disrupting operations.
“What happened at JFK Airport is unacceptable and travellers expect and deserve better,” said Rick Cotton, executive director of the authority.
“While the water pipe break appears to be weather-related, we have launched an investigation to determine why an internal pipe was not weather-protected and whether any other failures contributed to this disruption.”
The floor of the terminal was covered in about 7 centimetres of water that poured from a ceiling, forcing people to slog through the pools.
Power to the affected areas was temporarily shut off for safety reasons and additional staff and buses were brought in to assist travellers.
Domestic arrivals and departures and international departures from Terminal 4 suffered delays on Sunday. Some international flights destined for Terminal 4 were being diverted or sent to other JFK terminals, the authority said.
After the storm blasted New York on Thursday, passengers were kept on planes and waited for hours to retrieve luggage as flights were delayed and cancelled, and a backup to get to terminal gates built up.
Carlos Koester, 52, was in New York for a week with his wife and two teens and were trying to get home to Brazil.
“We love New York but now we are stuck here,” Mr Koester said. “It’s frustrating. The storm caught us and now we have been stranded here for 13 hours.
The authority said Saturday’s cold conditions led to increasing problems for the airlines and terminal operators.
“These included frozen equipment breakdowns, difficulties in baggage handling, staff shortages and heavier than typical passenger loads,” it said.
The blast of arctic air that engulfed parts of the east coast broke cold temperature records from Maine to West Virginia, although the situation was expected to improve.
Meanwhile, almost 400 turtles rescued from the frigid weather along the Texas coast have been returned to the Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christi.