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Hurricane Helene grounds 1,000 flights
Nearly 1,000 flights were scrapped by midday Friday, as Hurricane Helena continued barreling up the east coast.
At least 22 people are confirmed dead and millions spent the night without power.
The storm is in North Carolina and Georgia after intense flooding on Florida’s Gulf Coast with in some areas ‘unsurvivable’ storm surge.
Around 179 flights were canceled at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Friday while nearly 400 flights were impacted at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
“We’re just playing the waiting game right now. The rain is really impacting the western part of our state so we’re having trouble with both arrivals and departures,” said Bill Hopper, Executive Director of Pitt Greenville Airport, NC.
Overall across multiple states, about 4,000 flights have been delayed since late Thursday.
Delta, which has its main hub at ATL, issued a flight waiver to rebook travel for free for September 28 to October 1.
Most other airlines issued similar waivers including American Airlines, United, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue.
While several Florida airports reopened Friday morning, cruise ports at Tampa Bay, Port Canaveral and Jacksonville remain closed.
Several ships operated by Royal Caribbean, MSC and Carnival Cruise Line had revised itineraries to remain at sea away from Helene and some are due to return to port later than originally scheduled.
Cruise passengers set to depart from Florida ports over the next couple of days are asked to contact their cruise line for updates.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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