Cancelled flights prove troublesome for Houston travelers

CHICAGO (FOX 32 NEWS) - Several hundred stranded passengers arrived in Chicago Monday via emergency flights from Houston, some after spending several nights on the floor of Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. 

Sankha Das was on his way to China when he got stuck on Friday.

“The airlines tried to help us,” Das said. “There was food, little food trucks they were giving us comforters, blankets what we needed but it was bad they were cancelling one flight after the other.”

At least 7,000 flights have been cancelled since Friday, all thanks to Hurricane Harvey. All commercial flights were grounded from Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The only planes allowed to arrive and depart are for first responder support and some emergency flights to get people out of the airport.

Monday night Spirit Airlines flew about 200 stranded travelers from Houston to Chicago.

"It was a lot of rain and we were stuck in the motel for almost four days and the last day we didn't even have food to eat," Dennis Padhiar from Montgomery, Ala., said.

Koji Sakamoto was in the same motel - after three cancelled flights. He says just trying to get to the airport in Houston proved problematic

"I was waiting for a taxi and at first they said they will come and then suddenly they said they cannot reach so I started tried to walk but water was up to here so I thought it's too dangerous so I stopped," Sakamoto said.

That's when a Good Samaritan came to his rescue - picked him and a few others up at the hotel, drove through the flooded streets and taking them safely to the airport.

There are two Houston airports and cancellations are already stacking up for tomorrow. More than 1,000 cancellations are slated at the Bush Airport Tuesday and more than 300 are expected at the William P. Hobby Airport.