There was some progress on Monday afternoon at San Francisco International Airport after a few flights took off for the East Coast and some red eyes are scheduled for 10:30 p.m. But nearly 40 flights were cancelled and a lot of travelers are finding out they may not get out for San Francisco for days.
Vic Moruzzi is struggling to get back home to New Jersey and at SFO, he found his flight to Newark had been cancelled, even though when he left the hotel it was still a go.
"I can't say what I want to say on TV," he said. "Now I've got to wait for a half an hour to wait to half to somebody and they are going to tell me, 'well, what can we do.'"
Passengers waited in line and used their cell phones to grab a seat.
"I can't get on a flight until Friday and I am supposed to leave on Tuesday. I think that is kind of ridiculous," passenger Michael Lister said.
Lister really needs to get back to New York where he is about to start at stage production
"We need to rehearse because it opens next week, so I am hoping to be there for them. So, we will see," he said.
Nearly three dozen departing flights were scrubbed at SFO due to uncertainty over whether New York's airports would be open.
"The process of getting their flight crews, their passengers and their aircrafts in position to where they normally are and in normal operation then we are not going to be able to know. It is probably going to take a few days," SFO Duty Manager Dan D'Innocenti said.
Hotels around the airport picked up a lot of extra business. Aya Ito of Tokyo will spend two nights in Burlingame because she could not get to New York, but she will get to San Francisco for the first time.
"I will go sightseeing in San Francisco and I have never been there," she said. "It's my first time so I am very ready."
Due to all of the cancellations, there are not a lot of people at the gates because they are probably at the hotels or with family and friends.
On Monday morning, there was also a fog problem in San Francisco and about 30 flights had to be diverted to other Bay Area airports.
