Region shifts to normal (sort of)

A bit of St. Patrick's Day luck, in the form of sunshine and warmer air, helped the region lurch back into gear yesterday, with air travel resuming sporadically and main roads clearing a day after a punishing sleet storm caused mayhem for anyone trying to get anywhere.

"It was a nor'easter," said National Weather Service meteorologist Ray Kruzdlo, but one with a twist: Instead of a changing menu of precipitation throughout the storm, the Philadelphia area got a steady diet of ice pellets.

"You're looking at a 12- to 15-hour period of sleet," Kruzdlo said. "That was unique."

The 3 inches of sleet recorded at Philadelphia International Airport was modest as totals go - areas of Bucks County had double that amount, and the Poconos recorded 18 inches of snow - but it caused a nightmare for weekend travelers and spring break-bound students in shorts and flip-flops.

Yesterday at the airport, edgy, exhausted travelers who had been stuck in the terminal since Friday - there wasn't a hotel room for miles - swarmed ticket counters trying to rebook.

"They've got 1,000 people in here with lines that are going nowhere," Howard Popper of Philadelphia told KYW radio. "There's no organization."

Last night, just when it seemed things couldn't get worse, they did: With 300 people waiting in line, some about to check in, others trying to get on flights, the USAirways reservations system crashed. The outage lasted 45 minutes.

USAirways, the city's main carrier, estimated 25,000 of its passengers were displaced in Philadelphia by the storm.

"Our employees are working around the clock to right the operation," USAirways spokesman Andrew Christie said.

Even as it struggled to clear a nationwide backlog of 86,000 travelers who were bumped on Friday, the airline yesterday canceled more than a quarter of its flights - 141 - at the Philadelphia hub.

Weather had kept planes and crews from reaching Philadelphia after the storm forced the cancellation of most of the 1,200 daily flights in and out of Philadelphia on Friday.

As of last night, USAirways had not canceled any Philadelphia flights scheduled for today.

Frustration was palpable outside the USAirways baggage-service office late yesterday afternoon.

Steve Balser, 61, of Danbury, Conn., said he had been trying to get to Costa Rica since Friday morning with his wife and mother-in-law.

Their odyssey began at LaGuardia Airport, where they sat on a plane for four hours. "They gave us water. That's all they gave us," Balser said.

Then the flight was canceled.

The three, carrying seven suitcases, took a bus to Grand Central Station, a subway to Penn Station, and a train to Philadelphia, where they got the last three seats on a flight to San Jose scheduled for yesterday.

They got on the plane in the morning, Balser said, then waited an hour and a half for it to be deiced.

Then - well, let's just say Balser didn't make it to Costa Rica. The flight was canceled, he said, because the crew would be flying longer than Federal Aviation Administration regulations allowed.

"I'd like to get back to New York," he said. "It's been a fun two days."

On the roads, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation had used 17 tons of salt by yesterday morning, employing a "full call-up" of 400 trucks and about 600 workers, spokesman Gene Blaum said. Crews continued to treat roads yesterday and to plow in an effort to break up ice.

"It was a difficult storm," Blaum said.

Dale Wickard, a duty officer with the Pennsylvania Turnpike, reported more "minor fender-benders and spinouts" than normal.

New Jersey State Police received more than 2,000 motorist calls between 6 a.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday, according to state police Sgt. Stephen Jones.

Officials yesterday identified two of the three people killed in an accident in Gloucester County Friday night when a van went out of control and struck a truck.

State police said Juan Calderon, 23, the driver of a van filled with migrant workers, and a female passenger, Reyna Vasquez, 39, both of Bridgeton, were killed.

A third victim, a man, who was in the van hadn't been identified yet, Jones said. Thirteen other people were injured.

Ice-encrusted side streets made travel dicey yesterday, and shoveling was heavy work.

Dan Mannato, 37, of Bella Vista, who was at the Melrose Diner in South Philadelphia, said he was able to dig out his car, "but the sidewalks were terrible. Couldn't shovel, had to chop."

Even pedestrians, many of whom descended on Center City in search of Irish cheer, faced challenges, as great moats of mushy slush made crosswalks impassable.

Ten buses carried St. Patrick's Day partiers on the annual Erin Express pub crawl. Outside the Marriott on Market Street, a bagpiper in a kilt serenaded passers-by. Around the corner, the flag of Ireland snapped in the wind outside City Hall.

The St. Patrick's Day Eve storm hit just a month after heavy snow and blustery winds wiped out Valentine's Day celebrations, and two days after balmy temperatures had the region dreaming of spring.

"That's March," said Kruzdlo, the meteorologist.

Though the storm's icy sting was felt keenly here, its impact reached all the way to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. There, in an open-air airport with a thatched roof, Philadelphia-bound passengers were left wilted and wondering Friday and yesterday when their USAirways flights were canceled.

Among them were Ed and Beth Sell of West Chester, who laughed in spite of the debacle. They had arrived with her luggage torn. Then he stepped on a piece of glass. And when a performing parrot hopped up Beth Sell's arm, it promptly nipped off her diamond stud earring and swallowed it. Now this.

They joined clots of confused passengers, wondering what to do next. They finally got through to the hotel where they'd been vacationing, only to learn they had to pay $530 "for God knows what time we'll get there," Beth Sell said with a shrug.

"At least," Ed Sell said, "we have luggage."

Anthony R. Wood blogs about the storm at http://go.philly.com/weatherornot EndText