Dozens Of Delays At MIA, FLL After Severe Weather In South Florida
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- At Miami International Airport, hundreds of passengers spent the night on the floor or sleeping in chairs as scores of flights were delayed or cancelled by bad weather.
Thunder and lighting began going over South Florida at about sundown and continued late into the night.
The situation was aggravated when a lightning strike hit the control tower temporarily knocking out radio and telephone communications.
A traveler CBS4's Gary Nelson spoke to was trying to get to Canada.
"We got stuck even before we got off the plane.We had to wait two hours in the plane because of the storm," said passenger Francois Bergeron.
Travelers had lots of turbulence to talk about.
"After we get to West Palm Beach, there's nobody even there to greet us and we had to wait on the tarmac for like three hours," said passenger Cavel Frederick.
As dawn broke Wednesday, MIA and Fort Lauderdale -Hollywood International Airport (FLL) had jammed ticket counters - inundated with people desperately trying to get to their destination with alternate travel arrangements.
As of Wednesday around noon, MIA had cancelled or delayed 97 flights upwards of a couple of dozen. At FLL, airlines at last check were scrambling to reposition aircraft that were diverted or that never left other destinations to fly to South Florida.
Some travelers told Nelson that they might not even get out by Wednesday evening.
