Many Christmas Eve travelers around the country got what they wished for - few airport delays and highways that were mostly clear, despite a deadly weekend snowstorm in the Plains and the Midwest.
Even the usually congested airports in the New York area - Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark-Liberty - all reported departure delays of less than 15 minutes by Monday afternoon, with outbound flights taking off on time.
“The weather is pretty clear and there are no significant issues,” said Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three airports.
In the Midwest, sunny conditions helped road crews deal with the remnants of a blustery snowstorm that blacked out thousands of homes and businesses and was blamed for at least 22 traffic deaths.
Sgt. Michael Melgaard of the Wisconsin State Patrol in Eau Claire said driving conditions improved substantially for holiday travelers starting in the late morning.
“The roads were clear for the most part and traffic was moving at normal speeds,” he said Monday afternoon. “It seemed like there was a lot of steady holiday traffic, but it’s starting to wane now as people are getting to their destinations.”
The weekend-long blast of ice and windblown snow led to multi-car pileups that closed sections of several major highways on the Plains.
East Coast rail travel appeared to be running smoothly, too. New York’s usually frenetic Pennsylvania Station seemed sedate on Monday, with people ambling to their trains.
“Everything was great - so far. We still have one more leg of the journey,” said Sandra Patti, who was headed from New Jersey to Long Island to see family on Christmas.
Travelers flocking to the Little Rock airport also had smooth sailing by afternoon. About 118,000 people were expected to pass through the airport during the Dec. 17-Jan. 7 holiday travel period, an increase of some 7,000 over the same time last year, said airport spokesman Philip Launius.
“We were a little concerned about this year because the economy has not been good,” Launius said.
Economics did strand some travelers Monday. MAXjet Airways abruptly ceased operations between New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and London as the all-business class airline said it would file for bankruptcy protection. The five-plane airline reserved hotel rooms for stranded passengers and worked to find other flights for them.
Elsewhere, no early major delays were reported at the Los Angeles airport or Chicago’s O’Hare.
Lines at security also were relatively short, said Los Angeles International spokesman Albert Rodriguez. “People have gotten good about knowing what to pack and what not to pack, and just packing smart,” he said.
There were backups at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, but they were caused by people driving around the terminals waiting to pick up arriving travelers. Cars were backed up as much as a half-mile, said spokeswoman Deborah Ostreicher.
AAA estimated 65.2 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more from home during the Christmas and New Year’s period, a slight increase over last year’s 64.7 million, despite high gasoline prices and air fares.
Nationally, a gallon of regular unleaded costs $2.974 on average, according to the AAA.
Air travelers in western Michigan ran into problems Monday because of an overnight power failure at Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids. Service was not restored until late morning.
Backup generators powered the control tower, but there was no heat in the terminal. The outage was blamed on an equipment failure, not the storm.
A snowstorm across the Plains and Midwest blacked out thousands of homes and businesses and snarled air travel over the weekend.
The storm was gone Monday and conditions quickly improved, but authorities urged Christmas Eve motorists to be cautious in northern areas.
“The roads aren’t quite as ice-covered, but we’re still telling people not to drive unless they have to,” said Sgt. Tim Elve of the Dane County, Wis., sheriff’s office. “The interstate is still slick and the rural roads are really bad.”
Adding to the death toll, authorities say a woman died in Maple Valley Township, Mich., about 60 miles north of Detroit, after she lost control of her truck and it rolled into a ditch filled with water. The woman was trapped in the overturned truck, said police who discovered the wreck Monday morning.
The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Wisconsin. On Sunday, snow fell across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota and parts of Michigan and Indiana.
Up to 15 inches of snow fell over the weekend on parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which typically gets heavy snow, and freezing drizzle glazed some highways Monday morning in counties along Lake Michigan.
The storm system had blown out to sea Monday morning, but in its wake wind blowing at 25 mph picked up moisture from Lake Erie to create lake-effect snow in Buffalo, N.Y. Five to 10 inches of snow was possible there and in other parts of western New York by Tuesday morning, the weather service said.
In Chicago, some 250 travelers stayed overnight Sunday at O’Hare International Airport after 300 flights were canceled because of high winds. The airport set up cots for travelers, and flights were running smoothly Monday, airport spokesman Gregg Cunningham said.
The freezing rain, ice, gusty wind and heavy snow over the weekend knocked out power to than 421,000 homes and businesses in Michigan and Illinois, as well as thousands in Wisconsin. Only 15,700 customers were still without power in Michigan on Monday, while scattered outages remained in Illinois Monday evening, utility representatives said.
In addition to the Michigan fatality, accidents on highways slippery with snow and ice killed at least eight people in Minnesota, three in Indiana, three in Wyoming, five in Wisconsin and one each in Texas and Kansas.
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