A leak in the water pipeline flooded the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York on Monday, forcing terminal 4 to be evacuated and delaying or cancelling several flights. Cold wave conditions in the region had already caused a delay in many flights from the facility during the past few days.

The leak spread to the arrivals and customs inspection areas of the terminal, Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton told reporters. Officials cut power supply as a safety precaution. “What happened at JFK Airport is unacceptable, and travellers expect and deserve better,” CNN quoted Cotton as saying. He promised an investigation into the incident but said that it could take days to fix the problem.

The airport asked passengers to confirm the flight’s status with the airline concerned before heading for the airport.

The airport was just returning to normalcy after resuming operations following a suspension forced by the “bomb cyclone”. More than 500 flights in or out of the airport were cancelled and almost 1,400 were delayed between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon, Reuters quoted data from flight-tracking website FlightAware.