It wasn't just New York City commuters who had to deal with flooding Friday morning — even those looking to fly out of the city had to deal with flooding conditions.
LaGuardia Airport's Terminal A was forced to close down entirely before 11 a.m. after the building itself flooded as a result of the heavy rain. Video from inside the terminal showed passengers, some of whom opted to go barefoot, walking through inches of water just feet away from their gates for airlines such as Frontier and Spirit.
It was the worst flooding at the airport since Superstorm Sandy 11 years ago. One passenger told NBC New York water was coming in through the bathrooms.
The terminal reopened around 8 p.m. Friday.
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The airport encouraged all passengers scheduled to fly out of there to check and confirm their flight status before heading out there. All flights at Terminal A are canceled through 4 a.m. Saturday. Passengers at the airport boarded shuttle buses for other terminals.
While the airport itself sent out messages warning travelers, the airlines did not appear to be as helpful.
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"We got no emails, nothing. We called the airline and told to speak to live agent. They said police were blocking, they said walk to airport anyways," said passenger Aliyah Melamed.
Later in the afternoon, conditions improved enough at the airport for crews to vacuum some of the water out, as they hope to partially reopen the terminal just before 11 p.m. — right around when the next inbound Spirit flight is expected to land at 10:49 p.m. The airport expects full operations at the terminal to resume at 4 a.m.
The two other terminals at the Queens airport remained open, but many flights faced delays. Flights into LaGuardia were briefly halted, and then delayed, during the morning because of water in the airport’s refueling area.
For those wondering "Didn't they just spend billions renovating LaGuardia?" — well, you're not wrong. But that was for the new terminals, B and C, which are both equipped with special drainage protocols. According to the Port Authority, Terminal A is a landmark — a historic structure that did not get renovated or flood mitigation. There are plans to "retrofit" Terminal A to make it less prone to floods, but that has yet to happen.
By 3 p.m., there had been nearly 1,000 canceled flights at the three NYC-area airports, in addition to hundreds of delays. Roughly a quarter of flights at LaGuardia were cancelled, as were 13% at Kennedy. Port Authority said that while flights were still arriving and departing at the airports, "intermittent ground stops are likely as heavy rain continues."
Departures from JFK Airport were averaging 15-minute delays, though that was growing into the afternoon. Newark Airport wasn't seeing any significant impacts as a result of the rain.
The FAA makes the decision whether to implement ground stops if needed.
While shocking, the flooding at the airport was nothing compared to what some streets in the NYC area had seen throughout the morning. Some of the roadways near the airport stood to be impacted as well, and Port Authority encouraged travelers to leave ample time to get to the airport before their flight.
