Midwest Visitors Enjoy Predicament

Oh, the Midwest weather is frightful. And the sunshine here’s delightful. So if you’ve got no way to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Though not quite the holiday classic, that was the tune David Hanson, Don Prange and hundreds of other Los Angeles tourists could have been humming Sunday as blizzard conditions in the upper Midwest caused canceled airline flights to pile up faster than drifts in a cornfield.

“We’re officially stranded. But we’re not all that broken up about it,” said Hanson, a 33-year-old Wisconsin state trooper, after learning that Sunday’s scheduled noontime flight home had been delayed until 11 p.m. Tuesday.

“We have a legitimate excuse to miss work. I’d rather be here than on Interstate 94 writing reports on vehicles stacked up in snowdrifts, wearing my hat with the fur flaps and my long johns and still feeling cold.”

Prange said the pair’s noontime flight cancellation at Burbank Airport had caused them to rethink their priorities.

“First, we need to find a place to watch the Packers game. Then we have to find a golf course,” laughed the 32-year-old chemical processing operator from Racine, Wis.

The powerful holiday weekend storm piled nearly 22 inches of snow on Chicago, stranding thousands of travelers at O’Hare International Airport--some for two days.

American Airlines and United Airlines said they expected to operate only about half their scheduled flights at O’Hare on Sunday. Northwest Airlines, meantime, was advising travelers to stay away from Detroit’s Metro Airport, where operations were snarled.

Many of the Midwesterners here for New Year’s Rose Bowl game in Pasadena were uncertain when they would be able to leave for home. But most weren’t worried about being late.

“Yeah, it’s tough. It’s killing me not to be back in that weather,” joked Greg Alter, 39, of Speedway, Ind. “I talked to mom on the phone and this morning it was 10 degrees, and they had 9 inches of snow and freezing rain. This is the first time since 1978 that the Indianapolis airport has been closed.”

Alter, a corrugated box manufacturer, was touring the Huntington Library on Sunday morning with his wife, Leila Alter, 32, and her 22-year-old sister, recent University of Wisconsin graduate Kara Heckenlaible. The women were wearing shorts and mapping plans to visit historic Pasadena homes Sunday afternoon.

“Yesterday we had fun going to Malibu and the Santa Monica Pier. There were about 20 people at the end of the pier wearing Wisconsin sweatshirts and watching the sunset,” said Leila Alter.

“And wearing shorts,” added Heckenlaible.

Visitor Larry Prochnow of Milwaukee was waiting to see if the charter flight he and his wife and another couple were booked on would be departing on time Sunday night.

“We don’t have to go through Chicago, so maybe we’ll be OK,” said Prochnow, a stockbroker.

His wife, Jeanne, said their son, a law school student, called their hotel Saturday at the height of the Wisconsin blizzard.

“The power went out back there, and he called to ask where we keep the matches,” she said, laughing.

Friend Deneen Kickbusch, of Lodi, Wis., said she wouldn’t mind staying a while longer in Southern California. At least until things warm up a bit at home.

“Our car is on the top of the parking structure at the airport,” said the retired Wisconsin legislative aide. “We know it’s snowed in. And we don’t have a shovel.”

At Los Angeles International Airport, four friends from the Madison area were standing in the airline check-in line Sunday afternoon as the three flights they were hoping to take began being canceled.

“We’re stuck here. We don’t have a car. When we turned in our rental they asked if we wanted to keep it longer. Now I wish we had,” said Anna Cirilli, 22, a University of Wisconsin senior.

“Maybe we could have kept the rental car and driven home,” said Deana Broughton, 25, a computer company recruiter.

Angela Cirilli, 21, said she and friend Melpomeni Poulios, 20, spent three of their four days in Los Angeles at the airport searching for luggage that was lost on the flight out.

“Now we get our luggage and we’re stuck here. We’ve decided if we’re going to be stranded, we’re going to get a hotel on the beach and live it up like we didn’t get to do while we were here,” Angela Cirilli said.

But 17-year-old visitor Eric Booth of Brookfield, Wis., said he was anxious to return home after basking in the L.A. heat.