M a k i n g i t h o m e f o r Christmas was a fading dream Thursday for some Northwest Arkansas residents whose flights were canceled because of a slowmoving storm that dumped snow, sleet and heavy rain across the central part of the country.
Daniel Cox found out early Thursday that reaching Fayetteville wasn’t going to be easy.
“All I really know is that about 7 a.m., I got an automated phone call that theflight that was supposed to depart Dallas at 5:50 p.m. was canceled,” he said.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport’s Web site said many incoming and outgoing flights were delayed because of weather, and the problems were causing a ripple effect among U.S. airports.
In Northwest Arkansas, National Weather Service forecasters predicted freezing rain Thursday evening, giving way to an almost-certain blanket of snow overnight, perhaps 6-10 inches.
The cold front also was expected to bring wind gustsup to 30 mph that will push wind chills into the single digits today, said meteorologist David Jankowski with the National Weather Service office in Tulsa. Cloudy skies and daytime temperatures below freezing will persist through Saturday, when the wind should begin to die down, he said.
Cox spent a week skiing with friends at Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. He said his friends planned to stay but he hoped to get home Christmas Eve.
“The plan was get out for a week of skiing and be back in time for Christmas withthe family - or Christmas at the airport,” he said. “I’m just going to be crossing my fingers.”
What was supposed to take a few hours Thursday was becoming an ordeal, Cox said. He said his flight from Reno, Nev., to Dallas was delayed 40 minutes, and the flight home from Dallas to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport was canceled.
Cox said he briefly considered renting a car in Dallas to drive home but decided the drive might take longer if wintry weather is as bad as predicted.
Christie Dawson found herself in a similar situation Thursday, having booked a last-minute flight home to Fort Smith from Washington, D.C.
“The first flight I could get was [Thursday] evening, probably because it’s heading into a storm,” Dawson said.
Dawson was scheduled to leave Reagan National Airport outside Washington at 5:05 p.m. and be landing in Memphis at 6:41 p.m., putting her on track to be flying into Fort Smith Regional Airport just when snow was expected to start there.
With the possibility of Christmas in an airport looming, Dawson maintained a positive outlook. As legislative director for U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Dawson said she just survived a long congressional session that dealt primarily with health-care reform.
“It was 24 days straight, three weekends and one blizzard,” she said.
Dawson booked her flight shortly after Mikulski cast her vote for the Senate version of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was up for a roll call at 7 a.m. EST Thursday.
American Airlines canceled flights between Northwest Arkansas and Dallas-Fort Worth early Thursday. Though some of the airline’s late flights were still expected to arrive Thursday at the Highfill airport, the cancellations already had forced at least one Fayetteville couple to change plans.
Jose Jo and Dee Dee Hu planned to fly Thursday evening to Guatemala to see Jo’s family. Their trip, however, depended on a connection through Dallas-Fort Worth. That flight was canceled, and the couple was given a new flight out of Miami on a different airline.
Hu said the sudden cancellation left them with the option of sleeping in the airport or having the extra expense of a hotel room.
Jo said they were supposed to be in Guatemala at 8 p.m. Thursday, but instead would be getting there about 2 p.m. today.
“I guess we’re just going to not have Christmas,” he said.
Locally, state, city and county road crews throughout the region were on standby Thursday evening, ready to treat bridges and overpasses with salt, chat or an ice-resistant solution if needed.
Employees at the regional airport also were ready to treat icy surfaces, said Mark Mellinger, assistant airport director in Highfill.
Mellinger said he sent some staff members home early so they could be ready for the possibility of working all night. The staff’s ability to keep the airport running depends on whether they’re dealing with ice or snow, he said.
Ice is much more difficult to deal with, especially with very low temperatures, Mellinger said. The airport can only use certain chemicals because salt can damage the planes, he said.
Mellinger said his crews have had to deal with up to 15 inches of snow, so a possible 10 inches is something they can handle. The airport has two snow plows with 20-foot blades that are pushed by dump trucks, he said.
The plows are followed by a snow sweeper, which is similar to a street sweeper, only bigger, Mellinger said. The final tool for moving snow off the runway is a snow blower that can move 4,500 tons per hour.
The Arkansas State Police expected treacherous road conditions along Interstate 540, particularly between the West Fork and Chester exits, beginning Thursday night and into today. Patrol cars are equipped with studded tires and gas tanks that are never supposed to go below half full. The state police were ready to “go anywhere,” said Sgt. David Hyden.
Should the storm knock out any significant amount of electricity, the American Red Cross chapter of Northwest Arkansas was prepared to open emergency shelters. But area Red Cross Director Ruthanne Hill didn’t expect the weather to create a widespread emergency.
“I’m looking forward to a white Christmas,” she said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 12 on 12/25/2009