TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa International Airport, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport will all continue operations, despite Hurricane Dorian. Saturday morning, Tampa International confirmed that after careful consideration, it will not shut down operations, a task that can take up to 24 hours to secure boarding bridges and get planes out.
Inside of Tampa International Airport throughout Saturday, it was relatively empty. 10News found several families who changed travel plans because of Hurricane Dorian but not to flee a possible storm.
One mother says she was in Tampa on business but decided to leave early after seeing Dorian’s forecast shift eastward and looking more likely to impact her family in South Carolina.
“I’m going home. That’s all that matters,” said Angelia McClanahan.
She says her priority is her 24-year-old son and making sure he leaves Charleston and stays with her in Greenville, South Carolina.
McClanahan says changing flights was not easy, but it was free.
“I stood in line here for an hour. So all-in-all I spent about five, six hours trying to change my flight, but I understand everyone was trying to do the same thing I was trying to do,” she said.
The Bernsteins live on Long Boat Key. They didn’t want to deal with any severe weather, but more importantly, didn’t want to miss a flight they had scheduled for Thursday.
“We came here to get away before the storm hit. We’re due at a family event in Maryland and we decided we’re going to catch an early flight out because we figured our flight would not go when we have to get up there,” said Myron Bernstein.
Ashley Clements, Miles Barker and their 1-year-old daughter were stuck in the airport. Their cruise was moved up a day because of the Hurricane, so they flew in Saturday morning.
“We have to wait for seven hours and the cruise doesn’t board until seven, but we got here early, so now we’re just waiting,” said Clements.
Waiting is what many will do throughout the weekend as new updates come out from the National Hurricane Center.
Orlando International Airport says it will close at 2 a.m. on Monday. Tampa airport representatives will continue to watch Dorian’s track. They say fully shutting down operations can take up to 24 hours, but they will do whatever the weather requires.
Airlines are offering travel waivers and you can find more about those by clicking here.
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