Airlines warn of turmoil as snow heads for U.S. northeast

Unclaimed bags in the foreground as travelers retrieve their luggage at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Dec. 28, 2010. (DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

With more snow forecast for the Northeast this weekend, major U.S. airlines hit hard by a December blizzard are warning of delays and cancellations and waiving the usual fees to change flights.

American, United and Continental all say there could be travel disruptions at large airports such as Newark, LaGuardia and JFK in the New York City area. The National Weather Service has issued winter storm watches and advisories from eastern Pennsylvania to Vermont ahead of the storm.

AMR Corp.'s American said Thursday that customers scheduled to fly to, from or through 14 airports in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts on Saturday or Sunday can change their itinerary without paying the usual $150 rebooking fee if they begin their rescheduled trip no later than Monday.

Delta Air Lines Inc. made the same offer for weekend travel to those states plus Rhode Island if the rescheduled trip starts on or before next Friday. Customers could get hit with a higher fare.

United and Continental, owned by United Continental Holdings Inc., waived their $150 change fee for travel at 14 airports in the Northeast between Friday and Monday. They said they would also waive any difference in fare if the rescheduled trip starts by Jan. 23.

JetBlue, AirTran and Frontier also said they would waive change fees.

Airlines often drop the fees when bad weather is forecast, and they advise passengers to call and check on flights before heading to the airport.

The airlines are still reeling from late-December storms that caused the cancellation of more than 10,000 flights and delayed travel plans for hundreds of thousands of passengers. Aviation data provider FlightStats.com said North American airlines canceled more than 29,000 flights last month, up from about 21,000 in December 2009.

Delta Air Lines Inc. said Wednesday that severe weather in the U.S. and Europe last month will cut $45 million from its fourth-quarter earnings. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report adjusted earnings of about $210 million for the period.

George Hobica of travel website airfarewatchdog.com said airlines are canceling more flights ahead of time to avoid penalties when planes sit on the tarmac for more than three hours.

Mike Benjamin, CEO of FlightView, which tracks airport delays, said airlines were trying to make the best out of a bad weather situation by waiving rebooking penalties and using Twitter to warn passengers early about possible delays.

"There's definitely a shift in how airlines are responding to the weather," he said. "Gone are the days when they'd just say, 'It's weather and there's nothing we can do about it.'"

--The Associated Press

Workers remove snow from the tarmac at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Dec. 28, 2010. (DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images

Storm causes hillside collapse, flooding in California

Rain flooded lanes near the intersection of Warner Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, California, but the highway remained open on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.

A powerful storm dumped more rain on already waterlogged Southern California on Wednesday, washing hillsides onto highways, endangering houses in canyons and forcing rescuers to pluck dozens of motorists from flooded streets.

The storm was expected to ease as it moved eastward. Floodwaters washed away homes in Arizona, and inundated parts of Nevada and Utah.

The low-pressure system could be in New Mexico by Thursday and could reach the Gulf Coast by Saturday with some rain, but not the deluge that hit Southern California, forecasters said.

In Southern California, the burst of heavy rain in the morning left streets flooded and caused minor mudslides. The threat, however, of larger mudslides could last for weeks in the suburban Los Angeles canyon hillsides laid bare by wildfires.

"The ground is so saturated it could move at any time," said Bob Spencer, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

Spencer added that catch basins designed to hold a landslide's uprooted trees and other debris before it can wash down onto homes appeared to have plenty of capacity.

Heavy rains early Wednesday caused a hillside to collapse on part of a busy Interstate 10 transition road about 30 miles outside Los Angeles.

In eastern Orange County, 25 to 30 people were evacuated from their homes in Silverado Canyon. The houses were threatened by rolling boulders and debris flow. The canyon is on the edge of the Cleveland National Forest that burned in a 1997 wildfire.

Silverado Creek was swollen with muddy brown water and roads were choked with mud and uprooted trees.

Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz said firefighters walked residents to a church and searched deeper in the canyon for remote homes. "If we have any more rain, there are people who just can't get out," Kurtz said.

Paul Wright, whose best friend died in an Orange County mudslide in 1997, said he was awakened by the sound of rolling boulders at 3 a.m. and hurried to get his family out of his home.

"There's huge, big boulders, 'Boom! Boom!,'" he said. "I lost my house in the Laguna mudslide, so I'm erring on the side of caution."

Wright and his dog, Joe, waited outside a grocery store to be evacuated. Wright said he hoped to join his wife and two young children who already fled to a nearby church.

Some residents refused to leave.

Rick Tallant said he has lived in the canyon for nine years and planned to wait out the rain at his home.

"I didn't leave during the fire three years ago and I'm not going to leave now just because it's wet," he said. "I'm probably just going to go home and sit and stay dry."

In the towns of Laguna Beach and adjoining Laguna Woods, rescuers plucked more than 30 drivers, pedestrians and people stuck in their homes as mud and stormwater poured down steep hillsides.

"There's mud and rocks and hillside collapses," Laguna Beach police Lt. Jason Kravetz said. "It was too much (rain), too quick."

One man was rescued from his house after a mudslide pushed in one of the walls, he said.

About a square mile of Laguna Beach, including downtown, was closed as up to 4 feet of water rolled down the streets from Laguna Creek. The water later receded but left an mushy carpet of mud.

Officials on Tuesday ordered evacuation of 232 homes in La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, suburbs of Los Angeles below steep hillsides that burned in 2009 and where mudslides inundated homes and backyards in February.

The area is where the Station Fire charred 250 square miles above suburbs tucked below the San Gabriel Mountains.

Olivia Brown, 45, left her Paradise Valley home in the La Canada Flintridge area around midnight.

"I'm worried about a rock coming down on the house," Brown said at a Red Cross shelter. "My husband stayed home with two of our dogs. He had to be a man, you know, and hold down the fort. When he's nervous, it makes me nervous. I had to go."

Brown also was afraid that if she stayed home there might be road closures that would prevent her from visiting her daughter, who gave birth to her first grandchild at a hospital on Tuesday evening.

"Had it been the 1960s or 1970s, I guess we would have named him Raindrops or Stormy," she joked. "He's got a regular name."

"We'll be bringing home a baby for Christmas. Hopefully, we'll be back by then," she added.

As the "Pineapple Express" system swept Pacific Ocean moisture across the southwestern U.S., Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in six counties.

However, the storm was moving eastward out of California and the steady downpour that continued Wednesday morning was expected to turn patchy by afternoon, with fierce but brief squalls, National Weather Service meteorologist Tina Stall said.

Flood warnings and emergency declarations were in place in parts of Utah, Nevada and Arizona.

Rushing water ripped through the northwestern Arizona community of Beaver Dam on Tuesday, sweeping away five vacant houses near a normally dry wash. Three more homes were "teetering" Wednesday on the edge of a flooded golf course, officials said.

A man in his 70s collapsed from an apparent heart attack when flooding reached his home while friends tried to protect it with sandbags, authorities said. The man was taken to a hospital but his condition wasn't immediately available.

About 60 miles away, evacuation orders for the entire town of Rockville, Utah — population 247 — were lifted after a dam feared close to breaking was declared safe. Nearby Zion National Park also was evacuated and shut down.

In southern Nevada, a state of emergency was ordered after rain-swollen creeks closed some roads in the Las Vegas area and snow disrupted electricity to about 300 customers on nearby Mount Charleston.

Storm-hit Southern California braces for more rain

Vehicles dodge mud and standing water on Mulholland Highway near Skyline Drive on Dec. 19, 2010, as heavy rain continued to fall most of the day in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

LOS ANGELES—A storm walloped parts of Southern California with nearly 180 millimetres of rain and spawned minor flooding and mudslides, but forecasters warn the bad weather’s real impact may be yet to come.

Another 77 millimetres of rain expected across the region by Wednesday will hit already saturated hillsides, increasing the possibility of mudslides and flash floods, said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service.

The relentless rains that pounded Southern California through the weekend also caused numerous traffic accidents, downed trees and forced the cancellation of several horse races.

The Pacific Coast HIGHWAY between Malibu and Oxnard was closed Sunday night because of a rock and mud slide. No one was hurt. It was unclear when the scenic stretch of highway, some 65 kilometres west of downtown Los Angeles, would reopen.

The weather service said rainfall accumulation could reach 500 millimetres in some isolated locations by Wednesday, when the first phase of the storm is expected to pass. After a brief respite, it is forecast to return late Christmas Day.

The system hit the state after a large storm front moving out of the Gulf of Alaska met with subtropical, moist air coming across the Pacific Ocean.

In Kern County, officials declared an emergency after a second day of intense rains, a move that provides responders with faster access to country resources. The Bakersfield Californian reported that the rains left many neighbourhoods around the county dealing with high water. Some roads were closed and some homeowners stacked sandbags in hopes of staying dry.

The Los Angeles area, including downtown, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, also received heavy rainfall.

The Santa Maria River briefly overran its banks Sunday and caused flooding in Guadeloupe in Santa Barbara County, forcing an underdetermined number of people to leave their homes, fire officials said. The Santa Maria Times reported that the high waters began receding in the evening.

A flash-flood warning was in effect for some areas, particularly mountain areas still scarred by recent wildfires, while flood warnings or flood advisories were issued for most of the region.

Residents of La Canada Flintridge were among those keeping a wary eye on the rain. More than 40 homes in the hillside city just north of Los Angeles were damaged or destroyed by a mudslide in February.

“We are holding up,” said resident Lien Yang, who added he was warned to be prepared to evacuate. “It’s coming down steady but not pouring. Therefore it doesn’t cause a mud flow or flooding or anything like that. Hopefully, it’s winding down and we’ll have no threat this time.”

One of his neighbours, Tom Smith, spent part of Sunday afternoon placing sandbags in front of his house.

The rain triggered more than 60 accidents throughout the Los Angeles area, the California Highway Patrol reported.

-- The Associated Press

Icy roads mean dangerous driving south of Ontario

A pedestrian clears off a car as lake-effect snow bands again set up on Dec.14, 2010, in Buffalo, New York. John Normile/GETTY IMAGES

If you’re planning on driving south of the border today, watch out for closed roads and slick conditions as there are widespread reports Thursday of frozen roads from North Carolina to Florida.

Ice-slicked roads created treacherous driving conditions that caused a fatal accident and delayed school openings across a swath of the country, mainly in the South, while the East Coast braced for more snow.

Motorists trapped 12 hours by snow

Melvin Eckersley, 70, tries to snow blow his driveway Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, in Lyndhurst, Ohio. The wintry weather, with blowing snow that severely limited visibility, wreaked havoc on air and road travel. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

SOUTH BEND, Ind.— Authorities were working frantically Monday to reach motorists in snow-covered northwest Indiana who were trapped in their cars in biting temperatures.

LaPorte County sheriff's Deputy Andy Hynek said officials don't know how many people were stranded, but that some had been stuck for as long as 12 hours and many were in a 15km stretch of U.S. 30.

"All the way across U.S. 30 is at a standstill and all of those vehicles are occupied," Hynek said.

U.S. Midwest digs out after powerful storm

Traffic travels slowly on northbound Hwy 45, Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010 north of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT)

CHICAGO— A powerful storm that unleashed snow and strong winds across the upper Midwest left behind dangerously cold temperatures, promising a new set of challenges for people working to dig out.

Weather clears in Buffalo, I-90 reopens

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Authorities plan to review emergency procedures in the wake of an accident on a western New York highway that stranded hundreds of motorists for hours in the grip of a heavy snowstorm.

Snow strands hundreds of motorists on Buffalo highway

Vehicles are stranded on the New York State Thruway during a winter storm in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

BUFFALO, N.Y.— Hundreds of motorists were stranded on a western New York highway Thursday after an accident caused a backup and the idling cars became stuck overnight in heavy snow.

Storms hamper U.S. holiday travel

 

A planned boycott of airport security scanners was a bust, but holiday travelers in the western U.S. had to contend with a chaotic mix of snow, sleet and ice.

The powerful storm system closed roads and delayed flights from Anchorage to Salt Lake City, and promised to bring messy wintery weather to much of the Dakotas on Thanksgiving Day. Freezing rain glazed roads across the Midwest, and at least three traffic deaths in Iowa were blamed on the weather.

Photos from California's wildfires

Calm, cool weather Thursday morning dampened a wildfire that destroyed 25 buildings north of Los Angeles, but crews were prepared for afternoon winds that could kick up the flames again, a fire spokesman said.

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Dave Mills/The Associated Press

A building burns in the foothills above the town of Tehachapi, Calif., after wildfires erupted and spread quickly. (July 21, 2010)

Alex Gallardo/The Associated Press

An inmate fire crew marches near the Mojave Desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., where wildfires burned dozens of homes. (July 28, 2010)

Alex Gallardo/The Associated Press

A burned-out trailer sits near the Mojave Desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., after wildfires tore through the area. (July 28, 2010)

Sean Work/The Associated Press

Two wildfires that erupted July 27, 2010 and spread quickly in Southern California have destroyed dozens of homes including this house about five miles above Highline Road in Tehachapi and forced evacuations in remote areas of the state's Kern County.

Alex Gallardo/The Associated Press

A mule deer and her fawn make their way through a burnt-out canyon near the Mojave Desert town of Tehachapi, Calif. (July 28, 2010)

Alex Gallardo/The Associated Press

Burned vehicles litter a hillside about 16 kilometres southeast of the Mojave Desert town of Tehachapi, Calif. (July 28, 2010)

Casey Chrisitie/The Associated Press

Edward Crain walks in front of his burning home in Riverkern, Calif., July 26, 2010. Fire crews faced a 2,000 acre wildfire in the heavy vegetation in Bull Run Creek near Kernville, Calif.

Casey Christie/The Associated Press

San Bernardino firefighters with the U.S. Forest Service battle a fire in California's Sequoia National Forest. (July 27, 2010)

Casey Christie/The Associated Press

A water-dropping helicopter prepares to land in Kernville, Calif. during work on the fire in California's Sequoia National Forest. (July 27, 2010)

Alex Gallardo/The Associated Press

The glow from a wildfire can be seen through the entrance to the small community known as Old West Ranch near the Mojave Desert town of Tehachapi, Calif. as residents were evacuated. (July 27, 2010)

John W. Adkisson/The Associated Press

A firefighter watches a hotspot burn at the Kern County fire near Tehachapi, Calif., after wildfires broke out. (July 28, 2010)