Die-Hards Scramble for L.A. as Storm Delays Flights : Travel Woes Snowball for Giants Fans

The worst snowstorm of the winter threw thousands of New York Giants fans for a loss and forced them to change signals and scramble Friday as they tried to travel from the East Coast to Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena.

Airports were jammed after Thursday’s big storm closed runways and forced many would-be passengers to spend the night dozing in waiting rooms. Giants supporters, many clutching pennants and wearing team sweat shirts, fought to find flights.

A large number changed their game plan and took planes to San Francisco, then traveled down the coast to Los Angeles. Others made--or missed--connections in Southern or Midwestern cities. Some airlines added extra planes that filled up almost as fast as they were announced.

Booked on Three Flights

One executive whose nonstop flight to Los Angeles was canceled Thursday because of the paralyzing snow was booked on three flights that were subsequently canceled Friday. He abandoned two other flights that were delayed taking off because their connections became invalid. Finally, he got on a plane.

“Everybody who was scheduled to go yesterday wanted to go today,” said Michael Kearns, general manager of American Corporate Travel. “They made such a stink the carriers put on extra sections today.”

“Flights are moving out, but we’re playing catch-up all day,” said a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark airports in the New York metropolitan area.

All along the East Coast, snowplows, shovels, snow blowers and salt spreaders were implements of the day. Ground crews cleared runways and residents cleared their sidewalks and driveways as millions of people dug out from the storm born in the Gulf of Mexico that grew up to become a blizzard in New England. The storm caused at least nine deaths and left 20 inches of snow on the ground in some places.

“It’s a classic nor’easter,” said Bob Thomas, a meteorologist in the Albany, N.Y., office of the National Weather Service.

Sledding in the Park

New York was slush city as temperatures in the low 30s caused some of the snow at street corners to melt. Pedestrians performed awkward ballets jumping from curb to roadway while trying to keep slush from filling shoes, rubbers and boots. In Central Park, the snow was followed by adults on sleds, followed by small boys without sleds begging for rides.

“It was a great scene. It reminded me of my childhood,” said a woman writer who grew up in the Midwest. “I hadn’t been sledding for 20 years.”

In Washington, many of the city’s 300,000 federal workers took the day off as the government declared a “liberal leave” policy after sending workers home in the heart of the snowstorm on Thursday.

On Capitol Hill, traditionally slow-paced on Friday because Congress schedules little business, Jay Butler, a congressional aide, looked around him. “You can roll a cannonball down the halls of the Rayburn Building,” he said.

“Today has been a time of digging out people and finding cars,” said Sgt. Max Schulte of the Maryland State Police. Frustrated Maryland motorists abandoned 300 vehicles during the height of the storm, Schulte said.

Chicago River Freezes

In a precursor of what was expected to come in New York and New England during the weekend, bitter cold gripped the Midwest, with some wind chill readings of 70 below zero. Ice formed along the shoreline of Lake Michigan overnight and the Chicago River froze for the first time this winter, weeks later than usual.

Many Chicago residents had been lulled into believing winter would be relatively mild because of temperatures significantly above normal in December and early January. Reality quickly returned.

In Chicago, with a daytime reading of zero, and with 13 below forecast for Friday night, it was so cold that one woman bus driver told passengers: “I want all of you to hug each other. Get a little more friendly so we can get some more people on the bus. They’re waiting in the cold the way you were a few minutes ago.”

Throughout New England, police expressed concern that the bitter cold expected Friday evening in the wake of the storm would bring accidents on icy roads. Cold air moving down from Canada was expected to bring wind chill factors as low as 30 below zero in New York City.

While the storm and the crush of Super Bowl travelers combined to clog New York’s airports, some travel agents complained of overbooking on flights to Los Angeles. “The airlines overbooked terribly,” said Clifford Coch, president of Beekman Travel Service in New York. “In this case, it was preceded by the storm, and they had the backlog. It’s bad.”

Refuse to Be Daunted

But many Giants fans, who remained loyal after suffering through long losing seasons, refused to be daunted by the snow and the long delays.

In a waiting room at Newark Airport, stranded Giants fan Ira Meltzer, 46, summed up the sentiments of those around him. “I have a confirmed reservation out of Dayton tomorrow night,” he said. “I may miss a lot of the parties tonight, but I’ll be there by Sunday. That’s without a doubt.”

Times staff writers Lee May in Washington and Larry Green in Chicago also contributed to this story.