Snow and winds cause two days of chaos at MSP

Fallout from winter storm lingers at MSP Airport

Travelers at MSP Airport were still working to deal with changes after being dealt a series of cancellations from the storm Friday night.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Chaos reigned at MSP airport Saturday morning after a wave of cancellations that started Friday night and continued into the morning.

Spring Break got off to a snowy start for a lot of folks and flight cancellations added up, but by the afternoon operations got closer to normal.

A mass of humans filled Terminal 1 at MSP Saturday morning — a mixture of scheduled travelers and passengers stranded by cancellations Friday night.

Adam Burner sat on a plane for three hours Friday before the flight was cancelled.

He joined the rush of passengers early Saturday after watching 8.5 inches of snow accumulate.

"I actually smiled on my way back to the airport," the Madison, WI, resident said. "I was like ‘This is going to be a disaster. We’ll just figure it out.’ and we did. Hopefully, these guys are too."

"Ended up spending the night and tried to get here a little bit earlier today just because of everything you’re seeing right now," said Lincoln, NE, resident Chris Frankland, who got stranded at MSP as he tried to catch a Friday night connecting flight.

Not so spring-like travel day at MSP after major storms

Travelers felt the long lines at MSP on Saturday after TSA agents didn’t arrive following an overnight storm leaving one security checkpoint open. However, the chaos finally started to slow down as the day went on.

"They told me it was going to be six to nine inches so I’m thinking even today I’m going to get canceled," said Tony Wilson of Ft. Lauderdale, FL. "But when I checked last, my 12:45 is on time."

All three of those guys got in the air Saturday, but after a problematic morning, more than half of MSP flights either took off late or never lifted off.

Airlines cancelled about 180 flights and delayed more than 290.

TSA lines shrunk and operations got closer to normal by the afternoon and some of the passengers waiting in line said the airport was far from the hardest part of their travel day.

"Just shoveling the 8.5 inches this morning, that was the biggest deal," said Blake Bailey of Minneapolis. "I feel relieved to be here and not shoveling honestly."

Airlines still have a lot of catching up to do, and they say they’ll try to get everybody to their destinations as soon as possible, but in some cases that could take more than a day.