KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It's not often a reporter finds themselves a part of the story they are covering.
But this is the reality KSHB 41 News Reporter Leslie DelasBour dealt with as she spent days stranded at a Houston airport.
While the lines died down a bit Tuesday at Houston Hobby Airport, those travelers who booked flights on Southwest Airlines remained stranded.
Passengers like Monica Castro were among the weary waiting for a flight.
"I was hugging my mom goodbye and then an airport person just came up to us and said, 'Hey, you can hug your mom a lot longer - all SW flights have been canceled," Castro said.
Castro says she did not receive indication of the cancellation before that moment.
"I never got a notifications from Southwest," Castro said. "No text, no e-mail, none of that."
Castro tried to rebook online, but that was another frustrating failure.
"Basically just started looking at car rentals to see if we could something rented and just head out for today," Castro said.
But it wasn't easy to just drive from Houston to Kansas City to get back to her job.
"We did pre-book a car, but when we got to the rental place, they basically told us all those people who pre-booked there were no cars available so then it was panic again."
She found herself in a pickle because a lot of car rental places don't allow one-way trips.
"It was $400 for the car rental" she said. "Obviously, had to put a deposit of about $300."
Castro is happy to be headed back to Kansas City.
However, many travelers whose flights were cancelled were unable to booked on another Southwest flight until after Dec. 31.
