GSO took 15 CLT diversions last night, with only a skeleton crew on duty to handle them. Then three or four of them cancelled. There's no way that many aircraft should be dumped into one station. I think it happened because the aircraft belonged to 5 different companies (Mesa, AW, CHAQ, US, PSA) and no one knew what the other was doing. Bags everywhere, a truck load of CLT local bags were quickly shipped via truck this morning at 6am to CLT. Passengers left scrambling for hotels at their own expense because it was all weather related. Ugly!
Or maybe since the Majic arrival goes right over GSO, that makes it a convenient diversion airport? And- the weather really was really really bad! Summertime in the Carolinas.
Storms knock out power, cause flooding
KYTJA WEIR
kweir@charlotteobserver.com
Scattered storms knocked out power to thousands Thursday night, dropping heavy rain that flooded parts of Gaston County and lightning that extinguished Charlotte firefighters' communications' system.
About 9 p.m. a bolt struck a power source on North Myers Street, Charlotte city officials said, knocking out the Fire Department's dispatch system.
Firefighters used hand-held radios to send out calls instead. But authorities did not expect it to cause any delays to emergency responses.
Other lightning strikes also caused problems. By about 10:45 p.m., 4,500 Duke Energy customers had lost power in the Charlotte region, with some 3,200 of those in Mecklenburg County, said spokesman Doug Sharpe. He said crews planned to work through the night to restore electricity.
Flooding also closed part of Sugar Creek Road near the Hidden Valley neighborhood in northeast Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.
But in Gaston County, conditions were worse.
The parking lots at the Eastridge Mall and Gaston Memorial Hospital were flooded, said emergency communications supervisor Joann Yarbro.
Customers at Chuck E. Cheese's on Cox Road were trapped inside, she said, and police had to assist some people stuck inside stalled vehicles.
No one was reported injured and waters had started to recede by about 11:10 p.m., Yarbro said, but emergency crews were eyeing another approaching storm.
