ASHWAUBENON (NBC 26) — After the winter storm that caused thousands of flight cancellations over the holiday weekend, many travelers may still not be out of the woods. As of Monday evening, Flight Aware was tracking more than 6,000 flight delays and more 3,000 flight cancellations within, into, or out of the United States.
Kristin Cubsch of Sobieski was supposed to be on one of those cancelled flights. She found out Monday that her flight to Hawaii for a family trip in honor of her mother was cancelled.
“It’s the first Christmas without my mother so we were planning on spreading her ashes in a very special place that she loved in Hawaii," Cubsch said.
She and her sister were able to fly to Chicago but learned it was their connecting flight that had been cancelled. They were told that the next available flight wouldn't be for another three days. The two were traveling with their three young children.
“We’ve got to figure work schedules and the children have to go back to school," Cubsch said. "Can we take time off of work? Is there a hotel we can stay at? We don’t know. We’re just cancelling everything and it’s really sad. We're going to lose money."
Phil Rajkowski of Appleton had his daughter and granddaughter visit ahead of the holidays. They were supposed to fly home on Christmas Eve, but their flight home was cancelled, then re-booked, then cancelled again. He says his daughter had to stay in town for two extra days.
“The other grandma and grandpa were supposed to have Christmas Day dinner and Christmas Eve is my granddaughter's birthday," Rajkowski said. "So that’s all been delayed."
Meanwhile for those who were driving, the roads finally started to look better for travelers on Monday. Over the holiday weekend, the Wisconsin State Patrol Northeast Region responded to 27 vehicle runoffs and a total of 56 crash reports from Thursday to Monday morning.
“All of that was due to snow covered roads but also the wind played a factor as well," said trooper Benjamin Wyant.
With a warm-up expected to be on the way and with road conditions now clearing up, State Patrol is still urging travelers who will be on the road this week to be prepared.
“You may not expect to find yourself in a ditch," Wyant said. "Just make sure you have a bag in the back that’s got maybe some blankets, some hand warmers, just appropriate clothing for the weather in case there is some reason you should be stranded along the roadway.”
