Airports Already Being Impacted By Harvey
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - While the worst of Harvey will be impacting South Texas late Friday night into early Saturday morning, the DFW area is already feeling some early effects from the storm -- at the airport. Dallas Love Field has seen some changes to the flight board as the hurricane churns toward the Gulf coast.
Southwest Airlines is reporting 120 flights canceled systemwide. The carrier has been making changes at several airports as a result of Harvey. For instance, the final flight out of Corpus Christi, on any airline, departed at 6:30 a.m. on Friday and it was full. Airports in Houston, Austin and San Antonio are seeing similar changes as well.
Anahi Contreras had a seat on that flight from Corpus Christi. She had to be in Dallas for work, while her husband stayed back to help relatives prepare for the hurricane. She has been in South Padre Island for her entire life, and has survived bad storms before, but the predictions for Harvey are frightening.
"Definitely worried," Contreras said. "We tried to board up as much as we could, only had about 24 hours to prepare for it, so tried to put all of our safe keeping as high as we could, making sure everything was intact and taking important things. But, yeah, definitely worried."
As the hurricane moves closer to landfall, even more flights are expected to be canceled throughout the weekend.
American Airlines is also monitoring the storm, officials said. But, because they do not offer many flights to Houston, they are not anticipating a big impact to the weekend's service.
Many of the travelers who are leaving the coast -- including Houston and South Padre Island -- have landed in the DFW area with luggage for a long stay.
The ports of Corpus Christi and Galveston are already closed, and three cruise ships in the Gulf of Mexico, which are based out of Galveston, have been diverted to safer waters.
Meanwhile, some coastal Texas cities and counties have begun ordering evacuations. One law enforcement official said that it could become too dangerous for first responders to get into coastal areas, so authorities are encouraging residents to get out before the storm hits.
