2022 US Trip – Day 13 (Charlotte Douglas Airport During Hurricane Ian)

I had arrived at the airport not entirely sure what to do about the tailend of Hurricane Ian that had reached North Carolina. I thought it made sense to get there to see what would unfold, but part of me expected to be back in Charlotte that evening rather than my hoped for destination of Chicago. Not ideally, but I couldn’t even find the security gates at Charlotte Airport, the first time that’s ever happened, but that was due to large-scale refurbishment work and there were helpful staff available to point me in the appropriate direction.

The next thing that seemed unusual as someone from the UK is the number of posters warning travellers to have a think about whether they had a gun in their hand baggage. There weren’t just one or two posters, but tens of them, so I assume a lot of Americans merrily go through security forgetting they’ve got a gun or two at the bottom of their bag. It’s not for me to comment about the laws in other countries, but it does strike me as odd that this situation still exists, but best I don’t get onto the subject of gun laws.

I was pleased at this, namely, there were very few flights being cancelled.

Jumping ahead, this was the situation a few hours later, so I had been lulled into a false sense of security…. Fortunately mine was the 16:25 flight that was still taking off.

This was the clearest photo that I could get of the airport apron.

Unsure of what to expect, and at the airport five hours before the flight, I thought I’d just sit in the American Airlines lounge and see what there was to eat and drink. I’m good like that in a crisis…..