Dozens Of Flights Canceled At LAX Due To Winter Storm Slamming Midwest
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The effects of the severe winter weather thousands of miles away are reaching all the way to sunny Southern California.
Dozens of flights have been canceled by the storm, which has brought rain, snow, and ice to much of the Midwest. The winter storm has canceled more than 3,000 flights across the nation. At LAX, 68 flights have been canceled as of 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
The cancellations have left travelers like Robert Baker stranded in Los Angeles. Baker said he learned his Delta flight to Nashville was canceled when he arrived at the airport.
"Luckily, United is feeling good about making it in, so I've rebooked my flight," he said.
Thursday's storm was monstrous, stretching from the Canadian border, all the way to the Mexican border. Also hit hard by the severe weather is Texas, Nathaniel Simmons' destination and one of the states with the most flight cancellations and delays. Temperatures in Texas have already dropped below freezing and there are questions of whether the state's power grid will fail again as it did last year.
"I didn't even think about it until my daughter and wife called. I told them where I was going and they started saying, 'you need to check the signs, it's snowing everywhere,'" Simmons said.
But in spite of the weather delays, Simmons said he doesn't regret trying to make it to Texas to celebrate his sister and granddaughter's birthdays.
"It's nice to get to see them every now and then," he said. "I was supposed to go in 2020, but the pandemic hit."
It's a sentiment echoed by other travelers -- they have already put off so many trips and weathered other delays over the past two years, they are just taking their chances with traveling now.
"Total crapshoot," Baker said with a chuckle. "We're rolling the dice every time we head to the airport now."
