Winter weather disrupts flights, strands thousands nationwide with impacts felt in Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. - The brutal winter weather has stranded passengers at airports across the country, including the Orlando International Airport (MCO).

Data from FlightAware showed MCO accounted for 4.7% of delayed flights across the U.S. on January 6, and 3.1% of canceled flights.

"I was getting in line for TSA when I got the notification that my flight was canceled," said Nia Killins. "And, there’s no available options until tomorrow."

It’s not how Killins wanted to wrap up her holiday trip – which included a cruise to the Bahamas. The D.C. resident was scrambling to book another flight. Killins said she wanted to try and find one without a layover, as she feared she would just get stuck elsewhere.

"It’s very frustrating," Killins said. "I wish they would have told me before I checked my bag."

Here for a soccer tournament, Armin Rehmanian and his family keep getting notifications about their flight to Ohio.

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"There have been you know, six or seven changes throughout the day," Rehmanian said.

Rehmanian was optimistic the family would make it out on Monday – although his daughter wasn’t so sure.

 "There are people in worse cases than we are," Rehmanian said. "We’ve had probably three or four hours of delay trying to get back to Columbus."

As some people were trying to get out of Orlando, others were hoping to use The City Beautiful as a way around the winter weather. Jessica Shoeman was stranded in St. Louis with the goal of getting to Denver. 

"I was supposed to fly out at 6'ish, then they changed my flight to 4:30 the next day," Shoeman said. "4:30 p.m. tomorrow, if I had stayed on that flight."

Shoeman changed plans and booked a new flight: flying first to Florida, before home to Colorado. Shoeman was trying to make it in time for work on Tuesday morning.

"[My arrival] says 8:40, so we’ll see what it actually ends up being. I’m hoping; I’m hoping," Shoeman said. "It’s out of my control, so I’m just going to roll with the punches."

Shoeman planned to stay at MCO overnight and was not alone. Travelers across the country are in similar situations as states of emergency have popped up, with warnings not to travel through Tuesday night.

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