Colorado State lineman walked 6 miles after being stranded at Atlanta airport
Among the thousands stuck at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Sunday was Colorado State offensive lineman Luis Lebron.
A major power outage caused by an electrical fire occurred around 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon caused hundreds of flight cancellations and left an estimated 30,000 people stranded at the airport. In Lebron’s case, he was on the last stop of his return home to Jacksonville, Florida, after CSU’s game against Marshall in the New Mexico Bowl.
After waiting around the airport for hours, Lebron started walking in an effort to find a place to stay when he was spotted by Doug Evans of Fox 5. When he spoke with Evans, Lebron said he had already walked around six miles trying to find a place to stay.
.@dougevansfox5 was reporting on passengers walking to look for food and lodging after the airport power outage, when he met @CSUFootball offensive lineman Luis Lebron trying to get home to Jacksonville. He says he's walked about 6 miles tonight looking for hotels. pic.twitter.com/nK85EW98Vc
— FOX 5 Sports (@FOX5Sports) December 18, 2017
“I came in around 11 o’clock to the airport and was waiting an hour to get to Jacksonville to get home and be with my family when the lights went off,” he explained. “And we thought they would be off for an hour or two. Then an hour turned into four, five, six, seven. Until finally we started getting directions to leave the building. Then we got directions to go back into the building.”
Lebron said he had been to several hotels — all of which were fully booked — and hadn’t eaten since 4 a.m. But after the interview aired, Evans said several locals drove to the site of the interview in an effort to help Lebron (Evans did, too).
Atlanta responded to my live interview with Colorado State football player Luis LeBron who was stranded at the airport on his way home for Christmas. No food, no lodging. Good news. He's safe. Four people got out of bed and drove to airport to help him. pic.twitter.com/EDbPDm9Hos
— Doug Evans (@dougevansfox5) December 18, 2017
Several others reached out to Lebron on Twitter offering him a place to stay. That ended up not being necessary as Fox 5 reported Lebron’s mother arranged for an Uber driver to pick him up and drive him to a hotel for the night. Lebron’s mother will then pick him up Monday morning and bring him home to Florida.
I’m safe and sound now, everything has been taken care of. Thank you too all the kind people and fans that offered help, god bless you all and merry Christmas
— Luis F. Lebron (@lebronluis56) December 18, 2017
After that ordeal, it’ll probably even more special than usual to return home for the holidays.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
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