World
Boston blizzard trashes Valentine's Day weekend travel plans
IMAGE: MICHAEL DWYER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Katherine Richardson and her son Colin's plans were all set when they touched down at Logan International Airport in Boston on Friday. Colin would interview for a spot in the Boston Conservatory, a music and arts college, and they would be in the air getting back to their lives by Sunday afternoon.
But as Sunday afternoon turned into Sunday evening, they found themselves sitting in the Boston Back Bay train station waiting on an Amtrak train to New York City, even though neither of them live in the Big Apple.
The blizzard that barreled through Boston snarled all kinds of travel plans over the weekend for residents and visitors alike. Logan International Airport scrapped all Sunday morning flights, and many flights throughout the rest of the day have been delayed or canceled.
On the ground, the MBTA canceled all forms of public transportation on Sunday, including buses and subway trains. City officials also implemented an emergency traffic plan on Saturday night, turning several two-way streets into one-way roads.
Richardson's plans were trashed when she got a text at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday telling her that her Sunday flight was canceled.
"What happens then is we all panic," Richardson told Mashable. "We had to scramble because we can't get a flight out of here until Wednesday on the same airline."
Wednesday wasn't a viable option for Richardson. For once, she'd left her laptop at home and therefore couldn't get any work done if she was forced to hang around in Boston. So she bought two train tickets to NYC, where, on Monday, she and her son hope to fly out. She'll head home to Nashville, Tennessee. He'll be off to Cleveland, Ohio for school.
Not all travel plans were as scrambled as Richardson's, though the snow and stinging-cold wind did limit what people did over the weekend. Many stores were shuttered for the day, keeping everyone inside.
"Instead of trying to explore the city, we just stayed in our hotel," Ashley Introne, who was traveling with her boyfriend, Matt Simonides, and trying to get back to NYC, told Mashable. "As soon as we saw outside we said, 'nope.'"
They did step outside for a little bit, but the wind didn't do much to make walking any fun. The city saw harsh, howling wind chills for much of the day, with gusts that instantly dropped the temperature.
"The wind, I was ill-prepared for," Introne said. "It whipped me in the face quite a bit."
Tom Boucher, who had a train ticket back home to Baltimore, also couldn't believe the wind.
"It was rough," Boucher told Mashable. "My ears were so red. That's why I'm trying to grow out the beard, to at least have something to block it."
All these travelers may have found a way out of Boston, but their plans are in different states of disarray. Boucher only had a little bit of trouble riding to the train station in a friend's car. Richardson, on the other hand, is still trying to get a refund for her tickets.
"I've called about four times," she said. "I've been on hold for like 35, 45 minutes today."
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