Flights to South Florida were canceled but most others were merely inconvenienced a bit.
By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published October 24, 2005
Most airlines at Tampa International Airport opened on time Monday. But at 9:30 a.m., as Hurricane Wilma beat up Miami 280 miles south, Delta Airlines postponed its flights until 4 p.m.
That added another 60 cancellations to 100 departures and arrivals already delayed because a few carriers had postponed their starts to between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., TIA spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan said. Flights to and from South Florida were canceled.
Underneath the bank of terminal screens showing departures, arrivals and cancellations in red letters, Brenda Fitzpatrick read the paperback A Million Little Pieces waiting for an Air Canada flight to take her home to Newfoundland, Canada, via Toronto. She was delayed an hour.
Over the weekend, she had been with her sisters on a Cayman Islands cruise that had to reshuffle its stops to avoid Wilma.
"The storm's been following us around wherever we go," she said.
Passengers got seasick. One scheduled stop was abandoned. But Fitzpatrick still enjoyed her trip to the Sunshine state.
"It's been great," she said. "This wind reminds me of home."
Most flights at the airport were on schedule, Geoghagan said. More than 600 flights go in and out of the airport daily, and the terminal showed no signs of being inundated by stranded passengers.
In fact, it was mostly empty Monday morning, except for one family figuring out their next move after learning that their 11 a.m. Delta flight to San Francisco had been pushed into the evening.
"We're probably going to wait around here," said Todd Mattes of Tampa, who was looking forward to a vacation in wine country. "Drink a lot of Starbucks and wait until my iPod battery runs out."
