Feb 23, 2008 5:18 pm US/Eastern
Flights On Track As Northeast Storm Tapers Off
Airlines Squeeze Delayed Travelers Onto Flights
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Airlines squeezed stranded travelers back onto planes Saturday after the cancellation of more than 1,100 flights at New York area airports caused ripple effects around the country.
National airports had returned to normal arrival and departure times Saturday afternoon, with the exception of San Francisco and Newark International Airports, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Travelers passing through La Guardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport had been stranded in the New York area for up to two days because of cancellations and delays.
More than a quarter of the flights at Philadelphia International Airport were canceled, and delays there reached up to 4 hours Friday morning, airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanIstendal said. Many flights also were canceled at Boston's Logan International Airport, where delays ranged from three to six hours.
Some airlines waived their fee for passengers rebooking tickets.
The Northeast airports' problems caused residual delays of an hour or more for flights across the country headed to the region, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Low visibility at another major airport -- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International -- added to the slowdown.
"It's a domino thing," said Phil Orlandella, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority. "If one airport has a problem, it reflects anything that goes into there or out of there. Logan's at the end of the domino trail."
There were occasional flurries of snow Saturday, but the weather was expected to turn milder with a potential poke of sunshine in the afternoon, according to WCBS-TV weathercaster Lonnie Quinn.
Black ice will continue to be an issue on area roadways, however, because of the freezing temperatures.
Up to a foot of snow on Friday interrupted what had been a mild winter in much of the Northeast.Roads were slick throughout the region and there were hundreds of accidents, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged people to look on the bright side.
"The timing is perfect, if you think about it," he said. "We'll have the whole weekend to clean up the mess."
If that didn't cheer up his constituents, the mayor also announced that free hot chocolate and free sled rentals were available Friday at one park in each of the city's five boroughs.
By 2 p.m., 5.6 inches of snow had accumulated in Manhattan's Central Park, CBS station WCBS-TV in New York reported. Only 5.7 inches of snow in total had fallen all winter before Friday, with the most snowfall in one day totaling just 2.8 inches.
Up to a foot was forecast in suburban counties, and up to 9 inches fell in parts of Connecticut. Storm warnings extended northward across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. In many places, snow was changing over to rain, sometimes freezing rain.
The storm was not unusual for mid-February, but it was easily the New York area's most significant storm of the winter. The expansive system, which had brought everything from freezing rain to sleet to snow in parts of Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois on Thursday, lumbered eastward and northward overnight.
In Missouri, where the problem was mostly ice rather than snow, the State Highway Patrol cited slippery roads as factors in accidents that killed five people Thursday and early Friday.
Motorists, too, had problems getting around. The speed limit along the New Jersey Turnpike was reduced to 35 mph, and jackknifed rigs shut down southbound lanes of Interstate 95 for a couple of hours in Greenwich, Conn. One man in Connecticut and two others in Ohio were killed in storm-related car crashes.
"I didn't go over 30 mph on the expressway," said Paul May, whose commute on New York's Long Island on Friday took three times as much as normal. "It's very slippery. The roads are treacherous."
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
