New York airport terminal flooded as brutal cold grips US East Coast
NEW YORK New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport fell into chaos on Sunday when a water pipe broke, flooding a terminal as record-breaking temperatures hit the US east coast following a deadly winter storm.
Passengers had been stranded for days because of storm-damaged equipment and a backlog of flights.
CNN footage showed water gushing from the ceiling of Terminal 4, submerging the arrivals area in standing water.
JFK warned passengers via Twitter of flight delays, advising them to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.
Air India, China Airlines, Delta, Egyptair, El Al, Emirates, Etihad, KLM Royal Dutch, Singapore Airlines, Thomas Cook and Virgin Atlantic are some of the airlines processed by Terminal 4.
The burst pipe came after the airport was forced to close Terminal 1, which serves airlines like Air France, Japan Airlines and Lufthansa, to international arrivals on Saturday to get on top of the backlog.
Ninety-four flights were cancelled at JFK on Saturday and 17 diverted, as the extreme cold and storm recovery "created a cascading series of issues for the airlines and terminal operators," said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that runs the airport.
JFK was one of the parts of New York that saw record lows of up to -15.5 deg C on Sunday.
The big freeze follows a storm Thursday dubbed a "bomb cyclone," which has been blamed for at least 22 reported deaths in the United States. - AFP
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