Atlanta's Snow Strands Travelers In Miami
MIAMI (CBS4) - MIAMI (CBS4) - If you're scheduled to catch a flight out-of-town Monday and have a stop over in Atlanta, you definitely want to contact your airline, or check on their website, to see if your flight is on schedule.
Hundreds of flights into and out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, along with airports in Birmingham, Charlotte and Richmond were canceled on Monday because of snow.
At Miami International Airport, hundreds of passengers were put in travel limbo after 19 departures were canceled due to the snow storm; 13 arrivals were also canceled.
At MIA, Dontae Keys accepted the situation with resignation.
"Everything is delayed. It looks like the pipeline from here to Atlanta, you know, everything is shutdown. It looks like we're going to be here a couple of days," said Keys.
Keys and his wife just finished a cruise and where heading home to North Carolina. They plan to make the best of their unexpected stay.
"We're going to Disney for a day or two," he said.
"I got a message on my phone that they rerouted us and we are leaving Wednesday. However, I have to get to work on Tuesday," says Darlene Laboy who was trying to get home to New York.
"Not sure about where Atlanta is with their runways, I know they were iced for a while," said Miami International Airport spokesman Mark Henderson.
The day started early for Showtha Nada and quickly snowballed.
"My flight was at 7:20 this morning; they said how it's canceled. They gave us one for 11:30 a.m., waited again and now they have a sign that it is canceled. I have a nine month old infant who is not feeling well," said Nada.
Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport spokesman Greg Myers said they had 29 flight cancellations. Fifteen departures were canceled; 11 to Atlanta, three to Charlotte and one to Raleigh/Durham. In addition, Myers said 14 flights from Atlanta and two from Charlotte were also cancelled.
The winter blast which caused the cancellations rolled through the South on Sunday, coating bridges and roads with snow, sleet and freezing rain and causing at least one death in Louisiana. The governors of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee declared emergencies and schools and colleges called off classes.
Atlanta got as much as three inches, a rarity for that city. Forecasters said the front could also bring sleet and freezing rain lasting into Tuesday in Georgia. Unlike other times when an inch or two of snow coats the ground, temperatures were not expected above freezing into Tuesday, so it won't melt.
"Since it's going to be pretty cold over the next few days, we could see whatever accumulates sticking around for a few days," National Weather Service meteorologist Daniel Lamb said.
Despite officials imploring people to stay off the roads, interstates around Atlanta were clogged with cars early Monday.
The snow also forced Georgia officials to move Monday's inauguration of newly elected Gov. Nathan Deal from the state Capitol steps inside to the shelter of the House chamber. The inaugural gala was scrapped to keep supporters off treacherous roads.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
