re: No excuse
Keep in mind, what constitutes a "critical system" has changed a great deal in the past couple of years, whereas the infrastructure has not.
Just think of all the new baggage screening equipment that has been installed in airports across the country since Sept 11. How much do you want to bet that the backup power generators were not upgraded to accomodate them.
From Tom's description though it sounds like JFK was not even operating under backup generators throughout the terminal. Perhaps they thought the tower was the only critical system?
-Steve G.