The timing of this weekend’s storm could not have been worse for thousands of travelers who were delayed or stranded as they tried to reach their holiday destinations.
With nearly a foot of snow in areas around Boston, hundreds of flights at Logan Airport were canceled and a flood of carry-over passengers took to the rails and buses, which offered their own share of headaches. Those hoping to get on a future flight ran into a logjam as most of the pre-Christmas flights are heavily booked, according to Massport.
Michele Martin, 26, of South Boston, was told she could not get on a plane to Baltimore until Wednesday after her flight Saturday was canceled.
“I cried,” said Martin, who was finally able to get a train ticket to Baltimore on Sunday but was in a nightmare of a line to check her bags at South Station. “Now I just hope my bags get on.”
The day started early for Ray Vonderhaar, 63, of Bar Harbor, Maine, who drove his wife and two kids to Portland, boarded a bus to Boston, and then got bumped from a canceled train to New York.
“I thought it was really smart to not go with a plane this year,” he said. “I outsmarted myself.”
The sun returns today and Tuesday but temperatures will remain below freezing, according to the National Weather Service.
PARKING IN BOSTON
With the city’s first major snowstorm of the year, the parking space wars have begun.
City residents who dig their car out from the snow can put an item in the street to save the space for 48 hours after a snow emergency is lifted. Mayor Thomas Menino lifted the emergency at 4 p.m. yesterday, making Tuesday afternoon the end of the space-saving period, a rule Bostonians have ignored in the past.
The city has said it will remove the space savers once 4 p.m. Tuesday rolls around.
