Eastern Storm Puts Big Chill on John Wayne : Travel: Hundreds of people are stranded at the airport because deadly blizzard has grounded planes on the East Coast.

It was Mylo Reys, a skycap, who broke the frustrating news to hundreds of hapless travelers at John Wayne Airport on Saturday that their flights had been canceled.

Lightly dressed for a warm day, they arrived at the terminal unaware that their travel plans had been thwarted by the deadly blizzard that had closed airports and grounded planes on the Eastern Seaboard, from Bangor, Me., to Montgomery, Ala.

“There are a lot of unhappy people,” said Reys. “Friends drop them off with their baggage and drive away. Then I tell them their flight is canceled and panic sets in. They say, ‘What am I going to do?’ ”

What many of them did Saturday was stand in lines for hours to reach ticket counters, where they were informed they would have to wait up to 24 hours for airplanes to take them to their destinations.

Those temporarily stranded and clinging to public telephones to consult with friends and relatives included students trying to return to Eastern colleges after spring break, business and holiday travelers and a job seeker who was determined to reach Atlanta by Monday morning for an important interview for a sales management position.

Peter Aurecchione, 41, of Mission Viejo, the eager job seeker, resolved to take a flight to Dallas, although he would have to stay overnight in a hotel there before boarding a second plane to Atlanta.

“I don’t want to take any chances” of missing the interview, he said, hoping that his zeal would impress his potential employer. “They can’t say I haven’t made an effort.”

Aurecchione was among a crowd waiting at the Delta ticket counter, people who were missing connections to points nationwide because an airplane never arrived from the stormy East to make a scheduled flight from Orange County to Dallas at 11:35 a.m. Saturday.

“All carriers are in the same boat,” Peter Stearn, the agent in charge of the Delta ticket counter, told his customers. Some had been waiting two hours to reschedule their travel.

“Everything to the East Coast is canceled,” he advised them. “You might want to go home and call reservations and get re-booked.”

Gina Tolnai, a ticket agent at United, said all flights to New York had been canceled until Monday. “We are not even trying to re-book them tomorrow,” she added.

Michele Cotter, the agent in charge of the TWA ticket counter, said that although the airline had tried to call ticket holders to inform them of flight cancellations, many of the tickets had been issued through travel agents who couldn’t be reached over the weekend.

Greg Seligman, 31, who had been visiting his parents in Huntington Beach, was heartbroken when he learned that he would miss daughter Megan’s eighth birthday party today because he couldn’t coordinate flights through Dallas to his home in Tampa until Monday.

“And I don’t feel as bad as she will,” Seligman said glumly as he picked up his suitcase to return to his parents’ home.

Andy Dallas, 43, with his wife and 7-year-old son, had spent the previous few days touring Disneyland and swimming in a hotel pool. He learned from television that the unseasonable snowstorm had hit his home state of Illinois.

“We’ve had enough winter,” said Dallas, who wasn’t exactly shattered to discover that the family’s trip home to Champagne would be delayed. The family rejected an option to transfer to a United Airlines flight that would land them in Indianapolis late at night, where they would face a long drive home in the storm.

“We have decided to use it (the storm) as an excuse to stay another day and have some more fun,” said his wife, Barbara. “We may go see Universal Studios.”