A suspicious item prompted an evacuation at Miami International Airport, causing chaos for travelers amid a winter storm sweeping across much of the country.
Authorities evacuated the immediate area as a precaution. The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office confirmed that its Bomb Squad was dispatched to the scene.
MIA Spokesperson Greg Chin stated that TSA checkpoints in Concourses G, H and J, along with the curbside roadway, had been evacuated and closed. He advised travelers driving to the airport to allow additional time while the Bomb Squad conducted an investigation.
Later updates from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office indicated that the Bomb Squad cleared the area by 7:40 p.m., allowing the airport to resume normal operations.
Meanwhile, travel across the United States this weekend has been severely disrupted by a powerful winter storm. Thousands of flights were canceled nationwide due to the storm, which brought heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain to nearly 180 million Americans — more than half the country’s population — in an area stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England.
The National Weather Service warned that the snow and ice would take a long time to melt, hindering recovery efforts. “The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the service.
President Donald Trump had approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states by Saturday, with more expected. The Federal Emergency Management Agency pre-positioned commodities, staff and search and rescue teams in numerous states, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.