Wednesday, January 22, 2018

Alert – Travel During the U.S. Government Shutdown

The U.S government is in its third day of being shut down, but may soon reach a resolution. However, due to this shutdown, several parts of travel requiring government cooperation are being affected.

Customs & Border Protection reports that Global Entry application appointments will be suspended.

According to the Los Angeles Times, those applying for passports may face a longer waiting time:

The State Department will continue to issue passports and provide other consular services in the event of a government shutdown, the agency said Friday as lawmakers faced a deadline to pass a spending measure.

In a memo sent to department employees, William Todd, the agency’s acting director of human resources, said that consular services will be “100% operational” as long as there remains enough fee revenue available.

Passport agencies located in federal buildings affected by a lapse in funding, however, may be closed down, he wrote.

“The Department will continue as many normal operations as possible,” Todd wrote. “Operating status and available funding will need to be monitored continuously and closely, and planning for a lapse in appropriations must be continued.”

If the government shuts down, the State Department will become minimally staffed, the guidance says, and excepted employees — those who must continue working in the event of a shutdown — should cease communications with nonessential employees.

The Smithsonian will remain open today.

USA Today reports the differences in national park closures between this government shutdown and the previous one in regards to national parks:

The big difference this time around is that monuments and parts of most national parks will remain open during the shutdown.

During the last shutdown, in 2013, the Obama administration closed park entrances and put up barriers around national monuments. The policy sparked a public outrage when veterans were turned away from the World War II Memorial in Washington.

Trump and his team don’t want to repeat that fiasco. Most national parks roads and monuments and the private concessions that serve them remain open this time.

Services that require staffing and maintenance, such as campgrounds, full service restrooms, and concessions that require some park staff or assistance will not be operating, the Interior Department said.

Travel + Leisure noted that air travelers shouldn’t be too affected by the shutdown:

The good news is that Transportation Security Administration agents, border security agents, air traffic controllers and immigration enforcement officials are considered essential personnel. They will continue working through the shutdown.

The impact on air travel should be minimal. Just 13% of the Homeland Security department would be furloughed in the event of a government shutdown, the Washington Post reports.

Airports and flights should run on schedule, though there may be some delays if “non-essential” employees are furloughed in a shutdown.

Travel professionals are encouraged to keep up with the latest news about passport issues on the State Department’s website: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/ea/passport-services-government-shutdown.html

Read more in Travel Pulse and Skift.

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January 19, 2018

The government of Jamaica has declared a Limited state of Emergency for St. James Parish, where Montego Bay, a popular tourist destination, is located. Other areas of Jamaica, including Negril and Ocho Rios, are not included in the Limited State of Emergency.

ABC News reports:

Police said Friday they will take a zero tolerance approach to crime in the parish of St. James, where Montego Bay is located, and nearby communities that have seen an increase in killings that officials blame on gangs and lottery scams. Police said businesses and recreational areas are under a temporary curfew, and the state of emergency allows them to search areas without a warrant.

According to the Jamaica Observer, a limited state of emergency means “that the security forces have been given extraordinary powers and some rights have been suspended. Members of the security forces may also search places without a warrant.”

[Prime Minister Andrew] Holness said the state of emergency does not equate to the suspension of the rule of law, adding that the security forces will respect the rights of citizens and protect the dignity of all.

During the question and answer segment, the prime minister said some questions would not be answered in a bid to avoid revealing strategic plans.

However, he explained that the government factored tourism into the equation and considered the effects that the state of emergency might have on the industry. He assured that stakeholders in the tourism industry have given their support.

In a Facebook posting, the State Department encouraged travelers to Jamaica to:

• Monitor local media for updates.

• Be aware of your surroundings.

• Cooperate with any police or military personnel you may encounter.

• Do not resist a police or military inspection of your vehicle and personal belongings.

• Allow additional time for transit on the roads in St. James Parish.

The U.S. State Department has not made further recommendations, however the Canadian and British governments have warned their citizens to stay inside their Montego Bay resorts.

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January 17, 2018

All,

More than 1,000 U.S. flights have been canceled and many others delayed today, with airports in Atlanta, Houston, Boston and New Orleans tallying the most cancellations. The governors of Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina have declared a state of emergency for at least portions of their states. Some airlines have issued waivers, including

• • • Delta Airlines

• • United Air Lines
• • American Airlines.

According to Accuweather:

A storm will form along a new push of frigid air and deposit snow on much of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia into Wednesday evening.

“The snowfall will be parented by a storm responsible for spreading accumulating snow and slippery travel over the Midwest on Monday and the Appalachians on Tuesday,” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski.

Enough snow will fall to coat roads and lead to airline delays in the region. Plunging temperatures in the storm’s wake will lead to icy surfaces.

According to the CNN:

A winter storm was dumping snow Wednesday morning from the Florida Panhandle to Maine as it left bone-chilling and icy conditions in the states behind it, snarled traffic across parts of the South and East, and forced thousands of airline customers to scramble.

More than 1,000 US flights have been canceled and many others delayed Wednesday, with airports in Atlanta, Houston, Boston and New Orleans tallying the most cancellations, flight tracking site Flightaware.com says.

In Houston, ice that the storm left on roads a day earlier reverberated Wednesday as dozens of semitrailers and cars were stuck on US 59/Interstate 69 for hours and the city’s schools were closed.

Houston-area officials urged people to stay off the roads. Nearly 600 crashes have been reported in Harris County since Tuesday morning, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

Snowfall on Wednesday is expected to be the heaviest in North Carolina — Raleigh could get up to 6 inches — and in New England, where Boston also could see around 6 inches.

“As you go into the afternoon, evening hours, the system is pushing off the Eastern Seaboard,” CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said.

But even where accumulation is lighter, it could lead to slippery travel given the recent stretch of low temperatures, the National Weather Service said on Twitter.

In Tennessee, which had the coldest pockets in the South, wind chills made the air feel as low as 10 below zero Wednesday morning. More than 45 million people are under wind chill advisories or warnings in the United States.

Forecasters said chilly air would hang around from the South to the Northeast, leaving icy roads and hazardous conditions through Thursday.

The governors of Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina have declared a state of emergency for at least portions of their states.

Classes were canceled at a number of universities Wednesday in the South, including Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University and North Carolina State University.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Alert – Southern California mudslides; 13 dead

Santa Barbara County, California officials evacuated nearly 7,000 residents from foothill communities shortly before the heaviest mudslide surge hit the area around 3 a.m. So far, 13 deaths have been reported. The 101 Freeway, in parts of Montecito and Santa Barbara, will remain closed for at least 48 hours. At Los Angeles International Airport, flooding diverted travelers from a Terminal 2 customs area.

According to the CNN/Money:

Weeks after devastating fires tore through Southern California, heavy rains sent mudslides rolling down hillsides in Santa Barbara County on Tuesday, leaving 13 people dead.

The storm uprooted trees and homes, and left mangled cars and abandoned surfboards on the streets.

Roads turned into debris-filled rivers and swallowed up communities downstream from where the Thomas Fire burned thousands of acres last month.

“It was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere, with huge boulders, rocks, down trees, power lines, wrecked cars — lots of obstacles and challenges for rescue personnel to get to homes,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.

According to the LA Times:

The California Highway Patrol reported 275 traffic collisions on Los Angeles-area freeways between 5 and 9 a.m. One person was killed when a big rig overturned in the rain in the northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway near Los Feliz, but officials could not confirm the wreck was storm-related.

There were mudslides on Country Club Drive in Burbank, where police ordered evacuations.

The Burbank Police Department released footage of water surging across a roadway and urged people not to attempt to drive over it. The surge picked up and moved some vehicles, and a few homes suffered minor damage, but no one had been injured as of 1 p.m., according to police Sgt. Derek Green.

Surges also washed out Topanga Canyon Boulevard north of Pacific Coast Highway, and flooding closed sections of the 110 Freeway. Rescue workers saved a man and a dog trapped in rising water near the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, and a Los Angeles Police Department cruiser had to be dug out of debris on La Tuna Canyon Road with a backhoe. At Los Angeles International Airport, flooding diverted travelers from a Terminal 2 customs area.

Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, said mudslides are par for the course in this region.

“There are four seasons in California — drought, followed by fire, followed by floods, followed by mudslides,” he said. “That’s the normal sequence that we live with, unfortunately.”

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Sunday, January 7, 2018

Alert – New York: Evacuation at JFK Airport

JFK Airport’s Terminal 4 had a water main break at its baggage claim on Sunday, leading to an evacuation.

According to CNN:

The temperature was around 15 degrees when the flooding started about 1:30 p.m. Video showed standing water in a large section of the terminal and water cascading down a wall in an arrival area. Power went out in parts of Terminal 4. Conveyer belts stopped working on some luggage carousels and travelers were instructed to pick up their bags in another part of the terminal. The arrival area was cordoned off while employees swept water off the floor. The New York City Fire Department responded, but no cause of the leak has been provided. No injuries were reported. Around 3:30 p.m., the airport announced via Twitter that international flights into Terminal 4 had been shut down. Departures were not affected. JFK advised passengers to check with their airline prior to arriving at the airport.

The New York Times wrote:

For thousands of weary travelers, there seemed to be no end to the massive fallout from Thursday’s winter storm, which damaged equipment and forced scores of flights in and out of Kennedy Airport to be canceled or delayed. The effects have rippled across the world, stranding passengers at airports as far away as Beijing, many of whom are trying to return home after the holidays. Federal officials were forced to limit some flights into Kennedy Airport on Saturday, and the disruptions continued into Sunday. Shortly after the water main break in Terminal 4, the airport closed that terminal to international flights and diverted some planes to other terminals.

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January 4, 2018

All,

Early this morning an earthquake (reported as being a magnitude of either 4.4 or 4.5) struck Berkeley, near San Francisco. Currently, no damages or injuries are reported.

The San Francisco Gate writes:

The quake was centered two miles east-southeast of Berkeley at 2:39 a.m., at a depth of eight miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake struck on the Hayward Fault near the Claremont Hotel, USGS seismologists said.

People were awakened from the North Bay to San Jose, and some reported feeling it from as far as Sacramento and Lodi, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

According to USA Today:

Bay Area Rapid Transit said it had no initial reports of damage to the system.

“In an abundance of caution we are running the very first trains at reduced speed for another visual inspection by the operator,” BART said in a statement. “Riders on those first trains will experience a 20 minute delay. Normal speeds will resume following.”

USGS seismologist Robert Sanders told the Los Angeles Times that a magnitude-4.5 quake was not expected to cause major damage but added “there’s always a possibility of some minor damage to older structures in the area.”

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January 4, 2018

All,

More than 3,100 flights were canceled today and nearly 1,000 delayed as 13 states are now under a winter storm warning, with states of emergency declared in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. Airlines have updated their waivers and advisories:

• • • Delta Airlines

• • United Air Lines
• • American Airlines.

Other airlines to note:

• • Alaska Northeast Policy
• • Air Canada Operations Outlook
• • British Airways Northeast & Southeast Policies
• • Frontier Northeast Policy
• • JetBlue Northeast & Southeast Policies
• • Southwest Policies
• • Virgin America Policies

According to the CNN/Money:

More than 90% of flights at New York’s La Guardia Airport were canceled, the airport said on Twitter on Wednesday night, before the storm had struck. More than 20% of flights were canceled at JFK Airport at that time and more than 70% of flights canceled at Newark Liberty in New Jersey. American Airlines (AAL) suspended departures from Boston on Thursday because of strong winds and heavy snow.

American, Delta (DAL), Southwest (LUV) and United all warned passengers to expect long delays and cancellations at dozens of airports across the country.

Thirteen states from South Carolina to Maine are under a winter storm warning and the governors of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency. Forecasters say the Northeast states can expect hurricane-force winter wind gusts and blinding snow. Travel Leaders • 3033 Campus Drive Ste W320 • Plymouth, MN 55441

Greyhound buses running between Montreal, Boston, New York City, Albany, New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Maine cities of Bangor and Portland, were also canceled. The bus station in Savannah, Georgia, was shut down.

Motorists are also urged to leave their cars at home.

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