Almost 500 flights traveling inside and outside Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have been canceled due to the severe climate that affects the Atlanta metropolitan area.
On Friday night, a last storm group produced torrential rain in much of the Atlanta area, according to the city’s national weather office office.
The heavy rain resulted in important sudden floods in the area surrounding the airport, as well as Grant Park, College Park and Forest Park.
A video posted on social networks showed travelers trapped at the airport in the midst of delays and cancellations sitting on the floor while other travelers slept. Another video about X represented a ray illuminating the sky in Hampton, a suburb south of Atlanta.
The thunderstorms were expected to continue in the area this weekend, specifically during the afternoons and nights, according to the field of the weather service in Atlanta.
From 3 pm on Saturday, 468 flights traveling outside the Atlanta airport have been canceled and 540 have been delayed, according to FlightTaware.com. Many of the flights are operated by Delta Air Lines, which is based at the city airport.
“Delta’s people are working in the safest and most fast as possible way to recover flights affected by thunderstorms, rays, hail and winds in our Atlanta center on Friday night,” said the airline in a statement. “We thank our clients for their continuous patience and understanding.”
The intense thunderstorms that affected the airport, even with strong winds and hall of the inch room, resulted in more than 90 deviations to other airports in the southeast, according to the airline. The severe climate also caused a pause in the operations of the Atlanta airport for security reasons on Friday night.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Delta also said he expects additional delays and cancellations on Saturday while teams work to restore aircraft and crew members. The airline has more than 900 daily flights scheduled from Atlanta airport.
