Snow strands many in Portland
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 11:06 AM PST
PORTLAND (AP) — She didn’t quite understand it. But she forgave it.
Three days ago, Rea Chronopoulos flew to Portland from Chicago. It was supposed to be a quick stop on her way to Vancouver, British Columbia.
Then her flight got delayed. ‘’I was upset, but I was like, one night, no big deal,’’ she said Monday.
Three days later, she waited at the airport, book in hand, bag at side, wondering whether she might escape Portland. She’d heard some flights were leaving. She kept up hope that hers might be one of them. ‘’It’s the only thing I have to keep from crying,’’ she said.
The city she left behind on Saturday had been covered in white, but she got out all right. ‘’I guess that’s the most frustrating. To look outside the windows and say this is not bad. But I guess it is.’’
For Portland, anyway.
All across the city Monday, travelers were caught between origin and destination. About 200 people spent the night at the airport Saturday night and another 300 Sunday. At the Greyhound bus station in Old Town, another 100 people had set up a second home.
A group of three sat against a cool brick wall not far from the ticket counter. Fast friends get made in hopeless situations.
Darlene Robb, 56, met Joshua Wharen, 20, on their bus to Portland. She was heading from Santa Rosa, Calif. to Grangeville, Idaho. He was going from Fort Bliss, Texas to Spokane, Wash.
Erica Wilcox, 22, spotted the duo in Portland, caught, herself, between Great Lakes, Ill. and Klamath Falls, Ore. She saw Wharen’s Army jacket — she’s in the Navy — and thought they were probably good people.
