Post date: Jan 22, 2014 3:38:41 PM
Following an overnight snow storm, stranded passengers await flights at Newark Airport after many flights were delayed and cancelled.
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 22, 2014) (REUTERS) - Newark Airport, one of the major air traffic hubs of the New York metropolitan area, was empty on Wednesday morning (January 22) after a winter storm packing snow and Arctic cold slammed the northeastern United States on Tuesday.
According to FlightAware.com airports reported 1,556 canceled flights on Wednesday and some passengers atNewark spent the night at the departure hall after the storm had grounded their flights.Among them was Bharat Patel, who drove in from Pennsylvania to catch a flight to Mumbai on Tuesday. But he said that the heavy snow storm kept him longer on the road and caused him to miss his flight.
"Yesterday I left my home around 11:45 am (EST), and I had a flight yesterday at 4:25. But it took me five and a half hours to get here, my flight was missed," he told Reuters.
"So I had to stay over here. I tried a couple hotels, but it was booked up. So I finally decided to stay here and I talked to the airline manager, and they said they will arrange me (my flight) today. So I am just waiting for the 4:25 flight today."
A group of around 40 students of Mount Vernon Nazarene University, coming back from a field excursion fromItaly, shared Patel's fate after their connecting flight to Columbus, Ohio got cancelled.
They said that they were told that all hotels within the 30 mile radius of the airport were fully booked, and had no choice but to spent the night in the departure hall as well.
"Well, it's really uncomfortable. We have any money, because we spent it all in Italy so we had to sleep on the cold floor. And we just kept moving to different spot, trying to stay warm, but we weren't warm," explained studentMorgan Dufree.
"I had to move around a lot, not very comfortable. Tried to sleep in one of those chairs but it didn't work out. So then I ended up sleeping on the floor at couple of different places," added another student Rebecca Haught.
Shane Evelyn, who is returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic, saw his connecting flight to Torontoget cancelled on Tuesday too. He said that he is coping with the situation.
"Not very fun obviously, but what can you do? You can't get the flight out there is nothing you can do. So you've got to accept it and just get through it."
On Tuesday states across the northeast declared emergencies and warned residents not to travel during the fast-moving storm, which packed a potentially lethal combination of snow and wind, backed by temperatures up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) below normal.
Blizzard warnings remained in effect until Wednesday afternoon, and snow continued to fall during the morning rush hour on the New York suburbs of Long Island, where more than 13 inches of snow already covered the ground.