Costs Mount for Travelers Stranded by Furious Storm

It may be God’s act, but he won’t be picking up the check.

The bill for the furious storm that shut down much of the Midwest instead falls into the hands of the stranded travelers and the airlines unable for days to get them to their destinations.

“I’m already over budget, and I’ve only been stuck for two days,” said Carol Thorp of Irvine, who had been trying to find a way out of snowbound Peoria, Ill., since early Saturday morning.

Her extra costs were $180 for meals she didn’t expect to buy, an additional $39 for a cat sitter for three days, $42 for an airport shuttle because a friend can no longer pick her up when she gets home and $20 to kill time at the movies.

Then there were the intangibles you couldn’t put a price on: the five hours wasted just trying to dial the airlines, three hours waiting in ticket lines to try to get a flight home and two unplanned vacation days from her job at the Automobile Club of Southern California.

“It’s hard to calculate it,” Thorp said. “I would say I’ve spent a good 10 to 12 hours just to get myself rerouted. And I’m luckier than most people because I’m staying with family.”

At John Wayne Airport, the flights to and from Chicago no longer flashed “canceled” on Monday, but a backlog of weary travelers remained. Yet putting a tab on the delays, missed connections and overall inconveniences of the past few days would be difficult, said Tom Lieser, an economics forecaster and researcher at UCLA.

“People are pretty resilient about these kinds of delays,” Lieser said. “You get grouchy. You get dirty, and you don’t sleep well, but eventually you get to where you are going.”

While airlines took an economic hit, handing out meal and hotel vouchers to at least some of those left stranded, the impact shouldn’t be too costly.

“When they get around to adding the dollars and cents, it will probably be a wash,” said Lieser, who has studied the economic impact of major natural disasters on local economies.

The Smiths of Huntington Beach, missing their honeymoon in Florida because snow in the Midwest shut down several major airline hubs, were less philosophical.

“I just about lost it,” Renee Smith said, upon learning that the next available flight to Florida wouldn’t be until Wednesday morning, nearly five days after the couple’s planned departure.

“Now we have a three-day honeymoon,” she said, although family and friends were already in Florida partying as planned, using the condominiums the Smiths rented for the big family get-together.

Although the Smiths laid out good money for accommodations they weren’t using, at least someone was having fun, they said.

“I can’t believe it. I’ll bet they’re just golfing right now,” joked Smith. The couple was less jovial about their airline, TWA, which didn’t make any overtures to help make up for their loss.

But weather is one thing travelers can’t blame on the airlines, which had the misfortune of being hit with the worst storm delays in recent times on one of the busiest weekends of the year.

“It’s a bad situation,” said Oscar Sylican of Costa Mesa-based Worldview Travel. It was, he said, “one of the heaviest travel days of the year and it’s an act of God. It’s a very difficult problem to have all these people out there stuck, but the airlines are resolving it little by little.”

Local travel agents say all they could do for stranded clients was try to book them on the next available flight out.

“The airline is not obligated in any way,” said Cindy Preston of Business Travel Services in Newport Beach. “Sometimes they do issue meal vouchers, but a lot of people have been stuck in airports with no place to go. It has just been a huge mess.”

Which is not to say that all was bad for some passengers.

Thorp, stuck in Peoria, might have been longing for her sunny Southern California (“Are you kidding? Yesterday it was 7 degrees here with a wind chill of zero”), but travelers from the Midwest resting out the delay near John Wayne Airport had less reason to complain.

Imogene Meyer, 70, and a friend, Harriet Mueller, 77, came west to decorate floats for the Rose Bowl parade. They were supposed to head home to St. Louis on Sunday. Instead, they were still enjoying the sun.

“We’re stranded. We’re just on standby for now,” Mueller said. “But we’ve enjoyed the weather. It’s been great.”

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Winter Storm Socks In Airports

A combination of near-record snowfall in the Midwest and heavily booked holiday flights left thousands of air travelers stranded Monday. As the domino effect of cancellations and delays caused an airport crunch across the United States, airline officials said it could be Thursday before all passengers reach their destinations.

1. Los Angeles

Canceled flights strand Wisconsin football fans heading home from Rose Bowl

2. Chicago

Complete weekend closure grounds American, United travelers at O’Hare

3. Atlanta

Passengers are unable to find seats on heavily booked Midwest-bound flights

4. Detroit

Northwest cancels all inbound flights to Metro Airport until midday Monday

5. Cleveland

Flights are operating at Hopkins International Airport on two of three runways

6. St. Louis

TWA cancels 400 flights at airline’s main hub over weekend

7. Milwaukee

Foul weather closes regional airport over weekend

8. Toronto

Air Canada, Canadian Airlines backlog stretches to Wednesday after hundreds of weekend flights are canceled at Pearson International Airport

9. Indianapolis

International Airport reopens Monday after its first overnight closure in 20 years

10. Milwaukee

Mitchell International Airport reopens Sunday after an overnight shutdown

11. Buffalo

Airport is closed Monday when snow falls 2 inches per hour and winds blow 45 mph

12. Denver

800 United passengers await connections Monday

13. New York

Midwest delays throw off timetables when airlines scratch or reschedule flights into and out of La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark airports

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, CNN Interactive, Washington Post, New York Times, Yahoo! News