Super Bowl Fans Stranded As Winter Storm Disrupts Travel
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The mild weather was fine for the first Super Bowl in the Northeast, but a snowstorm is making it tough to fly out of town.
By midday, the flight-tracking website FlightAware reported nearly 2,000 delayed flights and 1,500 canceled flights nationwide, including in Newark, New York and Philadelphia.
The total delays nationwide as of Monday evening totaled 10,704.
And as CBS 2's Emily Smith reported, more than a thousand flights had been canceled at airports across the Tri-State Area as of 5 p.m. Monday.
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Inbound flights to Newark, LaGuardia and Kennedy airports were delayed two to three hours because of snow and ice.
Canceled, Delayed Flights Leave Super Bowl Fans Stranded
"The best advice I can give to air travelers is to contact your airline about the status of your specific flight," said Thomas Bosco, the Port Authority's interim director of the aviation department.
The flight status boards at LaGuardia Airport showed hundreds of cancellations and delays. That's left Super Bowl fans stuck in New York until at least Tuesday.
"We found out that we were canceled until 6 in the morning," said one woman.
For Russ Louderback, of Fishers, Ind., and his 11-year-old son Mason, the Super Bowl was a triple whammy of bad luck in less than 24 hours: Their beloved Denver Broncos lost, they got stuck in an hours-long traffic jam leaving the stadium and their 3 p.m. flight home Monday was canceled.
"It was so congested we couldn't get out of New Jersey, even though we left early because our team lost,'' said Louderback, 57, a hotel executive. He hopes to be on a plane Monday evening.
Super Bowl Fans Stranded As Winter Storm Disrupts Travel
It was the same for other Broncos fans waiting at LaGuardia.
"We were just happy to leave and then the flight got canceled, so now we don't have any idea how we're going to get home tonight," one Broncos fan told 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera.
"We're trying to get to Chicago. Our flight's a couple hours delayed, we're just hoping it will actually take off," a Broncos fan traveling with a baby told Smith.
But others seemed to be taking it in stride, particularly those who are fans of the Seattle Seahawks, who routed the Broncos.
Francois Emond of Quebec arrived at Newark Airport at 6 a.m. Monday to find his flight home had been canceled. Wearing a Seahawks championship hat and an ear-to-ear smile, he said he didn't care about the cancellation or the weather in light of Seattle's victory. He planned to spend an extra night at his hotel in New York.
"The night will be very short,'' Emond said. "When you win a Super Bowl for the first time, the night is very, very short.''
"Three of them in a row got canceled," another fan told Smith.
"We get home when we get home," an upbeat Seahawks fan trying to get home to Seattle told WCBS 880's Jim Smith.
"I think I could put up with a little bit of a delay, yeah," another Seahawks fan stuck at Newark said.
"Money well spent, glad we came," said another Seattle fan.
Volunteers from the Super Bowl were at LaGuardia handing out playing cards as a thank you to visitors who came to New York.
Now the parting gift will help some stranded travelers pass the time, Smith reported.
Forecasters expected the snow to taper off by early afternoon. However, another storm is likely to hit the same region beginning Tuesday night, bringing a combination of rain, freezing rain and snow.
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