Power restored after RDU outage causes major delays, massive lines out of Terminal 2

MORRISVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- The power is back on in Terminal 2 at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport but the frustration for flyers continued into the evening.

As of 5 p.m., according to Flight Aware, more than 120 flights in and out of RDU had been canceled or delayed on Friday.

A water leak that damaged an electrical distribution center caused an approximately 6-hour power outage at the airport.

The power outage was first reported around 1:30 - 2 a.m. It caused major delays for departures and even forced two airplanes from Los Angeles to divert to Charlotte.

Travelers at RDU were met by massively long lines at Terminal 2 Friday morning. Nothing except the emergency lights were working.

That meant no check-in computers, no baggage carousels, no departure monitors, no TSA scanners and more.

RDU and TSA worked to check passengers' bags manually and roll them back to the baggage area. They also physically patted down passengers and checked through luggage.

A majority of flights out of RDU in the morning were listed as "delayed" at the airport's flight status monitor. Southwest flights were not affected, as they fly out of Terminal 1, which never lost power.

The outage lasted until about 8 a.m. Once power was restored, RDU and TSA employees resumed normal operations, albeit with extremely long backups.