SEATTLE — Alaskans normally shrug off the heaviest of snowstorms, but now they’re suffering unusual inconvenience because of a few inches that fell more than 1,400 miles to the south.
Back-to-back snowstorms stranded thousands at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the jumping-off point for most travel to Alaska and a vital air-freight hub to the Last Frontier.
Alaskans headed to the warmth of Hawaii and Mexico may stay cold, and those staying home may have to do without their southern relatives.
The heavy snow that fell on the Seattle area beginning Thursday forced Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, the major carrier to its namesake state, to cancel about 450 flights across the Western U.S. through Monday, affecting tens of thousands of people, airline spokesman Paul McElroy said.
Other carriers serving Sea-Tac likewise were forced to cancel or delay flights.
“This is a historic storm. That’s the fallout,” McElroy said.
Travel prospects improved Tuesday as snowbound Seattle got a break in the weather and flights in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska were taking off as planned. But McElroy said the airline couldn’t promise to make up all the backlog by Thursday.
“We know that there are some customers we will not be able to get to their destination by Christmas, and we certainly regret that,” he said.
Trains also disrupted
Meanwhile, across the U.S., hundreds of Amtrak passengers bound for holiday destinations hunkered down in waiting rooms — some for nearly 24 hours — as snowstorms and Arctic cold delayed their trains and disrupted other Christmas traffic.
Don and Barbara Seifert of Proph ets town, Ill., spent a sleepless, frustration-filled night at Chicago’s Union Station with hundreds of angry customers.
After waiting 12 hours for their New York-bound train to depart, their breath visible in the frigid indoor air, the Seiferts finally abandoned plans to visit their son and his family for the holidays.
“It’s spoiled our Christmas, sure,” 73-year-old Don Seifert said Tuesday before he and his wife headed back to their western Illinois home.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said crews in some cities headed out with picks and shovels to clear snow- packed track switches; elsewhere, trains were held back to give lavatory pipes time to thaw.
Each train delay caused a ripple effect, with other trains and their crews at other points having to wait or adjust, he added.
“A combination of all those things is what presented this situation — about which we’re very regretful,” Magliari said.
Hundreds finally on board
Around 600 passengers in Chicago waited for up to 22 hours before finally boarding their delayed trains — the Lake Shore Limited, which was bound for New York, and the Seattle- and Portland, Ore.-bound Empire Builder.
Amtrak said several trains scheduled to leave Chicago on Tuesday were canceled. Passengers on shorter-distance trains were put on buses instead.
But freezing rain was making driving hazardous Tuesday across parts of the nation’s midsection, including Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Arkansas.
The Chicago Department of Aviation said more than 250 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport because of the weather, and many others were delayed.
