Floyd Cancels Trains, Flights
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
10:29 PM ET 09/15/99
WASHINGTON
(AP), Hurricane Floyd scuttled travel plans Wednesday for thousands of people all along
the East Coast. Flights were canceled from central Florida up into Virginia, the
Federal Aviation Administration said. Still, the flight schedule at Miami International
Airport, where air travel ground to a halt Monday, had returned to normal by Wednesday
afternoon, FAA spokesman Eliot Brenner said. Thursday, he said, could be a bust in the
mid-Atlantic and Northeast, adding that there could be some cancellations in the
Washington area and New York.
The FAA shut down control tower operations Wednesday at airports
in Wilmington, N.C., Charleston, S.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C, West Palm Beach, Fla., Daytona
Beach, Fla. and Jacksonville, Fla.
Many of the canceled flights were operated by Delta Airlines, U.S. Airways,
American Airlines and Continental Airlines, which carry the bulk of travelers along the
eastern seaboard.
American canceled flights in Washington; Richmond and Norfolk, Va.; Charlotte,
N.C.; and Orlando and Jacksonville, Fla. Trans World Airlines canceled more than 30
flights to and from several East Coast states. Continental Airlines grounded all flights
at Myrtle Beach and Charleston, S.C.; Sarasota, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, Fla.; and
Savannah, Ga. Continental canceled flights at other airports for part of the day, and
airlines announced several cancelations for Thursday as well.
Rail passengers did not fare much better.
A large CSX dispatch center in Jacksonville, Fla., virtually shut
down Wednesday, because it did not have enough staff on hand. CSX operates Amtrak trains
south of Washington, which meant that nearly all of Amtrak's passenger service between
Washington and Florida came to a halt.
The only southbound route in operation was between New York and New Orleans. But
that will be canceled Thursday, Amtrak spokesman Steve Taub said.
Amtrak service between Washington and Chicago also was stopped Wednesday, Taub
said. And all but one commuter train line between Washington's Union Station and points in
Maryland and Virginia were scrubbed because of the shutdown at the dispatch center in
Jacksonville.
``That dispatching center makes sure trains are controlled, are switched on the
right tracks, and it controls the mix of freight and passenger trains,'' said Frank
Fulton, a spokesman for the Maryland Rail Commuter Service.
CSX spokesman Robert Gould said some commuter service in the Washington region
would resume Thursday, but Amtrak passengers in the Southeast would have to wait for Floyd
to pass before making their journeys.
``Our concern is we don't want to put passengers in harms way,'' he said.
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