‘ It’s like the end of theworld’ at airport
Travelers wait, swelter as San Juan terminals come back to life
JUAN, SAN PUERTO RICO There’s a new front in this island’s growing humanitarian crisis in the wake of Hurricane Maria: the airport.
Thousands of sweating, hopeful passengers have thronged inside Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, desperate to catch a flight off the storm- ravaged island.
Airlines, which have canceled dozens of flights over the past week, began commercial flights to the U. S. on Sunday. Passengers wait in long lines inside terminals running on backup generators with no air conditioning. Many have spent
“No A/ C, no nothing, we’re just sweating in here. They don’t even give us water. None of this is right.” Andrew Arteaga
the night inside the steamy terminals, hoping for a chance to leave.
“It’s like the end of the world,” said Andrew Arteaga, who spent five nights at the airport with his wife, MarjetMendez, and 8- month- old daughter, Ayla.
The family had been trying to return to Orange County, Calif., but had several Delta Air Lines flights canceled before finding a United flight, which Arteaga said the airline offered for free.
“No A/ C, no nothing, we’re just sweating in here. They don’t even give us water,” he said. “None of this is right.”
Airlines began commercial flights out of San Juan on Sunday, starting with just two flights a day per airline.
The storm knocked out the control tower’s radar system, forcing pilots to fly to the island using “visual confirmation,” a trickier method that takes longer for planes to land and takeoff, said Elvis Perez, a service clerk for American Airlines.
About 300 airline employees were flown in from Miami to assist in everything from baggage handling to ticketing, he said.
But with the computer system still down, reservations had to be confirmed with phone calls to Miami. “It’s been tough,” Perez said. Airline employees checked IDs by camping light. Near the American counter, a line of passengers stretched nearly the entire length of the darkened Terminal B. Many fanned themselves with fans or shards of cardboard. Mothers sprinkled water on the sweaty heads of babies.
FAA spokesman Gregory Martin said recovery efforts in Puerto Rico now support a dozen commercial passenger flights a day at San Juan’s airport. The FAA is regulating the use of gates at the airport to manage the demand for ramp space and to keep aircraft safely separated, he said.
“As the agency continues to restore radars, navigational aids and other equipment damaged during Hurricane Maria, the number of flights is expected to increase,” Martin said.
The FAA airlifted a mobile air- traffic control tower to St. Thomas during the weekend. Hurricane Irma damaged the island’s tower at Cyril King International Airport, and a mobile tower was brought to the island Sept. 13. But it had been removed in advance of Hurricane Maria.
“We’re also shuttling the controllers who staff the tower from San Juan to St. Thomas and back every day,” Martin said.
At San Juan’s airport, beleaguered travelers just wanted to hear these words: You can board your flight now. Omar Carter, 36, of Las Vegas, was vacationing in San Juan with his wife, Suzette Robinson, when Hurricane Maria quickly grew, stranding them on the island. The couple had returned to the airport every day since Friday. Each day, their flight was canceled.
They were back in line on Monday. “We’re just trying to stay optimistic and trying to get home,” Carter said.