Terrorism officials say this week's blackout at the Atlanta airport is exactly what phase one of a major attack could look like.
It lasted 11 hours. Thousands of people trapped in a restricted space, blinded by darkness with no direction or defenses - the perfect recipe for would-be terrorists.
“This is a message to them that if you can break into one of these power systems or critical infrastructure you can do tremendous damage, both physical and psychological,” says Dr. Jeffrey Addicott at the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.
Fortunately for us, most Jihadists haven't proven to be that smart. “If you look at the case by case by case, many of these people don't have the operational sense on how to do these things.”
Still, Addicott calls it a wakeup call for state and federal officials to shore up the nation's critical infrastructure.
“Local officials in Atlanta and the issues they had with private industry and the amount of time it took to fix it is way, way, way too long.”