Thousands of passengers at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport found themselves stranded during a massive power outage over the weekend, but on Sunday a local Chick-fil-A surprised everyone by rolling in to feed the starving passengers.
The world’s busiest airport ground to halt on Sunday, as a sudden power outage grounded more than 1,000 flights in Atlanta. While authorities insisted that no one was endangered by the outage, the ripple effect of the problem spread across the nation’s air transportation system.
But the stranded passengers and busy airport workers weren’t left to starve. The fast food company reported serving over 5,000 people.
Chick-fil-A is famously closed on Sundays, but the location’s workers jumped to their stations when the emergency befell the busy transportation hub. In turn, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed thanked Chick-fil-A owner Dan Cathy for his support, Atlanta’s WSB TV reported.
LIGHTS ON and delivering food and water to our passengers! Thank you @dancathy with @ChickfilA for opening on a SUNDAY! #ChristmasMiracle pic.twitter.com/0PlSxHIWj5
— Atlanta Airport (@ATLairport) December 18, 2017
The company released a statement about their efforts to “serve a community in need.”
“The mayor called about 10pm and asked for assistance. We immediately mobilized staff and team members who live and work near the airport, and they are making sandwiches and delivering them to the EOC (emergency operations center). City and airport officials there are distributing sandwiches to passengers who are stranded due to the power outage. It has been a very difficult day for thousands of travelers, and while Chick-fil-A is always closed on Sunday, our restaurants open occasionally to serve communities in need. We do not make a profit, but do what we can to offer comfort to people experiencing hardship.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston
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