FLEEING IRMA
Florida refugees get to Philly — just in time:
PHILADELPHIA » By Saturday morning, Florida airports will have grounded flights while the rage of Hurricane Irma rolls across the peninsula, heading north.
Airlines in Miami had ceased all flight operations Friday morning, while airports in Key West, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Tampa dialed back trips in precaution of the oncoming storm.
Those who were arriving Friday afternoon at Philadelphia International Airport were among the lucky few to have get out while they had the chance. Those who heeded warnings of Hurricane Irma had arrived to the airports early and traveled light with only the necessities.
“When I heard about the hurricane I booked my flight immediately,” said Joni Block, 56, of Boca Raton, Fl. who packed up and flew north with her dog, Lille, to ride out the storm with family in Langhorne. “It’s been very stressful.”
Block said Southwest was one of the only airlines allowing animals to travel along with owners.
“Fort Lauderdale looked like it was a dog park,” Block said. “It was scary.”
Anthony McLaughlin,
“When I heard about the hurricane I booked my flight immediately. It’s been very stressful.” — Joni Block, 56, of Boca Raton, Fl. “It’s expensive, but worth it. Better to be safe than sorry.” — Veronica Lopez, 38, regarding fleeing the storm
35, of West Oak Lane in Philadelphia, said he’s never seen so many pets in an airport. Arriving at 4:30 a.m. for a flight that wasn’t until the afternoon, McLaughlin said his early arrival was necessary to get out of Florida in time.
“It was very nerve racking,” McLaughlin said. “My family kept texting me, and I was saying, ‘It’s still bright and sunny here!’”
But then, he didn’t want to be stuck.
“People were leaving extra plywood for people who needed it to board up windows,” McLaughlin said.
Other travelers like Ray Melendez, 62, and his wife, Alejandra, 48, were on their way home to Fort Lauderdale from a vacation in Italy when they were diverted to Philadelphia.
He said that in previous hurricanes the airlines would offer shuttling services to other airports, but in the wake of Irma there were no options.
Melendez said he was fortunate to have family members check on his Florida home.
“We had family come to help, but I’d like to be there, I want to be with the family,” he said, adding that he was holding out hope that the storm would continue up the coast instead of cutting into land.
“All you can do is hope,” he said.
Demi Pissanos, 26, who flew from Tampa Bay to rendezvous with family in Cherry Hill, said the packing up and weatherproofing her home in Florida was frenzied.
“We pulled everything away from the windows, boarded them up,” Pissanos said.
Veronica Lopez, 38, sitting with her child in the terminal awaiting a ride to Morrisville in Bucks County where she would stay with family as her husband rode out the storm in Ft. Lauderdale. She was worried about him — “I’m thinking about him all the time.”
“It’s expensive, but worth it,” Lopez said of fleeing the storm. “Better to be safe than sorry.”