Sandy Stutters Travelers At Nation's Busiest Airports
DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - With the East Coast battered by what was Hurricane Sandy, some of the nation's biggest and busiest airports have been shuttered—with the ripple effects being felt across the globe. Even passengers who thought they were planning ahead, are still finding themselves stuck.
"When we heard how severe the storm was going to be we changed it [ flight ] to Wednesday," says Dr. Joseph Prisco, from his son's Lake Highlands area home. But, Wednesday, now seems overly optimistic. "We had to re-arrange our flight plans, again."
The Priscos hope to be back in New York by Friday. But, they aren't exactly complaining about the extra time spent in North Texas—especially since the reason for the trip was to welcome a new grandson to the family, Hudson. "This has been more of a blessing in disguise," Dr. Prisco said. "I get to dress up my grandson for Halloween!"
"We get to spend Halloween together. How cool is that?" grandmother Hannele Prisco asked excitedly. "We get to walk around the neighborhood and enjoy Halloween."
Clearly, the Priscos have decided that being stranded far from home has its perks: if only all stranded travelers had such happy distractions. Some estimates put the number of cancelled flights at more than 15,000 over the past two days.
Those that could, called ahead and avoided unpleasant airport surprises. But, passengers making connections often had few options. Guilherme and Marcela Dellarole got stuck in Dallas while trying to get home to Brazil from their Hawaii vacation.
"Too many hours in the airports," said a laughing Guilherme, still holding on to a sense of humor. "The vacation was fantastic, so we're not complaining!"
For now, the Priscos are booked on a flight back to New York later this week. And they say the warm weather here is only part of what they'll miss. "The people in Dallas are so friendly!" exclaimed Hannele. "Texas has been nothing but hospital to us," added Joseph. And a laughing Hannele added, "I just want to stay here much longer… looks like I'm going to stay here until next spring."
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