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Hurricane Florence Delaying Travelers at Local Airports

PITTSTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Some folks who live in the Carolinas and in the path of Hurricane Florence aren’t heading away from the storm. In fact, som...

PITTSTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Some folks who live in the Carolinas and in the path of Hurricane Florence aren't heading away from the storm. In fact, some of them are heading toward it.

They are catching flights home and meeting connecting flights to Charlotte at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.

It was busy inside the airport Wednesday with a lot of people changing their flights. Newswatch 16 spoke to travelers from North and South Carolina who were rushing home before Hurricane Florence hits.

All week long, roads in the Carolinas have been packed with people trying to get out. Hurricane Florence is expected to make landfall later this week.

"I've been watching it pretty carefully for the last several days so it's been on my mind and I've been keeping aware of it," said North Carolina resident Lee Thompson.

Here in northeastern Pennsylvania, people from North Carolina who were visiting our area are also rushing home to beat the storm.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport has daily flights to the airport in Charlotte.

Lee Thompson is from Charlotte but was in our area on business.

"My schedule this week, I was originally supposed to come in on Friday and due to the hurricane, that obviously has been cut short."

When we got to the airport, we found that the afternoon flights going into and out of Charlotte were delayed because of the weather.

There were long lines at the airline counters. People who had layovers in Charlotte had to get connecting flights elsewhere to make it home.

Tania Fain is from Charleston, South Carolina. She was supposed to go home earlier this week but had trouble because her original flight was canceled.

"We've been through this. We've lived down there for 15 years. We've been through several hurricanes. I'd just rather be home than away from home during something like this," Fain said.

"It's an inconvenience, but I grew up in Georgia, so this is not the first rodeo, so I understand the seriousness of it and how it impacts people's lives, so I think that's the bigger picture," Thompson added.

The people we spoke with say despite the delays, the airlines are working with them to make sure they make it home safely at no extra charge.

You can check your flight status with WNEP's Flight Tracker.

You can monitor Hurricane Florence with the WNEP Interactive Hurricane Tracker.

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