Chicago area sees flight cancellations, train delays from powerful late-night storm
Chicago’s powerful storm caused some cancellations and delays at the city’s airports and public transit systems, though light Sunday night traffic kept disruptions to a minimum.
Chicago’s United Airlines had only five flights on the board at O’Hare International Airport by the time the heavy weather briefly ground transportation to a halt at about 11 p.m., spokeswoman Leslie Scott said.
“We just don’t have that many flights lately at night departing from Chicago,” Scott said Monday. “So those flights did take some brief delays, but that’s it.”
The storm, which brought high winds, heavy rain and a tornado that touched down in Naperville, Woodridge and Darien in the southwest suburbs, damaged homes, uprooted trees and caused significant damage. By the calm of Monday morning, flight delays were minimal for major airlines serving Chicago.
There were 37 flight delays at O’Hare between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, while Midway Airport had 10 delays and three cancellations, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, which is grappling with active thunderstorms, topped the so-called MiseryMap with 63 delays and 12 cancellations Monday afternoon.
Dallas-based American Airlines canceled nine Chicago flights on Sunday due to the weather, spokeswoman Gianna Urgo said. By Monday, the weather problems had migrated to other airports.
“Today, the operation at ORD is recovering, but we do see some departure cancellations due to weather in other parts of the system,” Urgo said.
Southwest Airlines, which flies out of O’Hare and Midway, had three cancellations and 18 delays out of both airports due to Sunday’s storm, Dan Landson, a spokesman for the Dallas-based airline, said Monday.
Delta Air Lines reported “no significant delays or cancellations” as a result of the tornado that touched down in Chicago Sunday night, spokeswoman Emily Cashdan said.
On the ground, Metra experienced some minor delays, but the schedule was back on track by Monday morning, spokesman Michael Gillis said.
“There were a couple trains on the UP North that were delayed by the tornado warning for about 20 to 30 minutes,” Gillis said.
In addition, a power outage at a switching location near Grand and Western avenues delayed four or five trains “for a time” Sunday night, Gillis said.
CTA was essentially unaffected, with no reports of weather-related delays or damage to CTA property, spokesman Brian Steele said.
