More than 1,100 flights have been canceled as millions of people across the United States endured further severe weather on Tuesday, June 27.
Airports suffered widespread disruption in and out of the East Coast as thunderstorms struck the region and a deadly heatwave continued in the South.
Among the flights canceled were 280 at Newark Liberty International Airport, while LaGuardia Airport had more than 230 cancellations, John F Kennedy International Airport more than 90 and Boston Logan International Airport more than 110, according to FlightAware.
Newark, LaGuardia and JFK all reported on Twitter that weather conditions were causing disruptions, delays and cancellations as they advised travelers to contact their airlines for updates.
The National Weather Service warned that widespread clusters of showers and thunderstorms would hang over the region, with another front expected to bring more severe weather.
NBC News reported that many families were among those stranded at airports and facing potentially days-long journeys.
It said that among them was Stewart Downey, 57, with children Cameron, 24, and Dallas, 15.
They had been in New York to celebrate Dallas’s upcoming 16th birthday but when they arrived at LaGuardia for their flight back to Minneapolis, they learned their flight had been delayed and then canceled, with the next flight available not until Thursday.
“We said we’ll take any flight to any city,” Stewart Downey, a communications director for a school district in Minnesota, told NBC News.
The family ended up taking a Lyft, which she said Delta Air Lines paid for, to Hartford, Connecticut, in the hope of catching a flight to Detroit and then to Minneapolis.
“We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience to their travel plans as weather and air traffic control challenges have impacted our operations,” a Delta spokesperson said.
“We are working to get them quickly and safely to their destination and encourage them to use the Fly Delta app for the latest updates to their flights.”
More severe weather is expected in the area, with the weather service warning that a front extending from parts of the Great Lakes/mid-Atlantic to the Southeast and then to the southern Plains was also moving toward the East Coast.
The front was expected to bring showers and moderate to severe thunderstorms over parts of New York state, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina.
There was also a marginal risk of severe thunderstorms over parts of the Northeast/mid-Atlantic through Wednesday morning, the weather service said in a later update.
