ROMULUS, Mich. – Crickets -- that's how quiet and empty Detroit Metro Airport was Friday night.
The departure boards were a sea of red, signaling flights from Philadelphia to Buffalo and all points in between had been grounded.
Related: Blizzard barrels into Northeast
Delta Airlines and all the others started calling off flights on Thursday. They let passengers know if the east coast was their destination it simply wasn't going to happen. The storm started to pound some of the busiest airports in the world, including New York Kennedy and Boston Logan.
So far, 4,700 flights across the country have been canceled. Thousands more flights are expected to be canceled on Saturday.
The airlines are hoping to resume service by 6 p.m. Saturday, but that is an optimistic estimate.
Airlines have done their best to avoid trapped passengers by getting the word out early about cancelations, but some some still found themselves in travel limbo.