Severe Storms Cancel, Delay Hundreds Of Flights Across US
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Nearly 900 flights have been canceled across the U.S. and another 500 have been delayed due to a large storm system moving through the middle part of the country.
Flight-tracking service FlightAware showed that more than a third of the cancellations were at Chicago's two main airports. Another large chunk came from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport; several tornadoes touched down Saturday in the Dallas suburbs.
Other cities with an unusually large number of cancellations included Houston, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Missouri, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Lubbock, Texas.
A typical day sees about 150 cancelations and 4,000 delays.
Faith Stockley, who is originally from Atlanta and now lives in Switzerland, arrived with her family at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday hoping to get to Atlanta to see her mother for New Year's.
They had to spend the night at a hotel and finally got a confirmed flight out of LaGuardia Airport on Monday.
"Fingers crossed that it doesn't get canceled and that we can finally reach our destination," she told WCBS 880's Ginny Kosola.
Heidi Reardon from Crystal Lake, Illinois was in Connecticut with relatives for Christmas and now she and her family are trying to get home.
"We're trying to get to Chicago O'Hare and it looks like there's an ice storm going on there right now so hopefully we'll get out today," Reardon said.
Rachel Walker, who lives in Brooklyn, is hoping to make it to her winter vacation.
"I'm going to Aspen, Colorado through Chicago O'Hare and my flight has just been delayed for three hours," Walker said.
Parts of 11 states in the middle of the country are under a winter storm warning as the weather system that spawned deadly tornadoes in Texas and flooding in Missouri moves on.
Forecasters say Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and parts of Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas will see winter weather conditions ranging from heavy snow to ice, accompanied by gusty winds.
Parts of the Southeast will see rain, while severe weather is possible in Mississippi.
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