I work as a Resident Assistant (RA) at my university. Last Sunday (8/28/11) we were supposed to have about 60 residents move in. Due to the storm that never really hit Boston itself, almost every flight from North Carolina to New Hampshire was cancelled or kept grounded. Thus far the wind damage alone has totaled up to over a billion dollars. Just think about what would have happened if a plane was placed right in the path of the hurricane. I take that back, let’s just think about how it was probably a smart idea to cancel all of those flights.
By Friday, U.S. air carriers had already canceled 5,000 flights in advance. They were already warning that several major airports in New York and Washington could shut down entirely. They had originally been hypothesizing that tens of thousands of travelers would be affected by all of these cancellations.
Now that the storm is starting to settle down, what do the numbers look like?
650,000+ people. It is going to take some time in order to get the airline schedules back on track. This also is due to the fact that almost all of the flights for the rest of the week were already booked and full. Now, these 650,000+ people have to be fit in as well! I know that my dad had to make his way out to St. Louis on Tuesday instead of that Sunday. With this being the last week of the summer vacation for most students and with Labor Day being right around the corner, it was certainly already a busy time for all of the airlines.
Just how many flights were canceled? Over 12,000. United, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, SouthWest… they all cancelled flights or postponed them until Tuesday or Wednesday. However, even though it has all been crazy and a lot of places are in terrible situations, the airports in New York and Boston do expect to be fully functional on Monday.
Hurricane Irene has certainly left its mark on the New England coast line. We’re not used to these types of storms. I’m just thankful that Boston was not hit that hard at all.
