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KARE 11 reporter gets stuck in Utah due to Delta issues
Wolfe is among tens of thousands of air travelers nationwide impacted by the CrowdStrike tech outage, which has snarled operations at Delta and other carriers.
SALT LAKE CITY — Travelers are stranded at airports on what is now day five of a major transportation mess triggered by a computer outage.
Thousands of flights have been canceled across the country following the CrowdStrike tech outage and Delta, which has a major hub in the Twin Cities, is responsible for two-thirds of cancellations nationwide. Those cancellations have left scores of travelers stranded across the country, and KARE 11’s Morgan Wolfe is one of them.
Wolfe took a vacation to Glacier National Park in Montana. When it came time to return home her first flight was delayed, and then her connecting flight to MSP Airport was canceled.
Morgan said she tried to rebook on her Delta app, but the soonest flight available was Tuesday night. Things got worse when she tried to retrieve her suitcase at the airport in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“So I after waiting for two hours to talk to Delta agent, they closed the stand down we were told to come down to put in a request to get our bags,” she said. “We’ve been here for two hours and it’s a half-hour past midnight. I’m so tired.”
Thrifty Traveler’s Kyle Potter is not optimistic about Delta getting their mess straight before Friday.
“This is really ugly and this is about as bad as it gets… and you know, a serious black eye for an airline like Delta that has tried to be the premium airline of the United States and has really prided itself on its reliability,” he said. “Here they are just absolutely falling apart.”
Delta canceled more than 700 flights on Monday, bringing its total since the outage started Friday to more than 5,500 cancellations. That’s according to travel-data provider Cirium. Delta’s woeful performance is drawing unwanted attention from the federal government. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he spoke to Delta CEO Ed Bastian about the cancellations, adding that he expects Delta to issue quick refunds and to pay for hotels and meals for customers who are stranded by the ongoing cancellations.
Bastian, the Delta CEO, said in a message to customers Sunday that the airline was continuing to restore operations that were disrupted. One of the tools Delta uses to track crews was affected and could not process the high number of changes triggered by the outage.
“The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our re-accommodation capabilities,” Bastian wrote. Loads are the percentage of sold seats on each flight.
“It is going to take another couple of days before we are in a position to say that … the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian added. “Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again.”
Other carriers appeared to be returning to nearly normal levels of service disruptions, intensifying the glare on Delta’s relatively weaker response to the outage that hit airlines, hospitals and businesses around the world.
Since Minnesota is a Delta hub, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has the second most cancelations and delays in the U.S., trailing only Atlanta.
“Some of their scheduling software basically just broke and so my understanding is that Delta has been trying to do this manually but you know when you’re flying thousands of flight a day, you just can’t keep up,” Potter said.
Tensions are running high between the airline and its customers – Wolfe said she has seen customers berate Delta employees, hotels in some cities are fully booked and no one knows when they’re getting home.
“I wouldn’t feel good about flying Delta on Friday,” Potter said. “This is going to take some serious, serious time for the airline to reset and get caught up.”
MINNEAPOLIS — How much do you know about your grandma’s upbringing?
“The Stories From My Grandmother’s Hands” is a book that aims to show young Black children how their grandmas lived through beautiful illustrations and descriptions.
KARE 11 News at Noon shared more on Thursday about the impact that this book will have.
Gary Peterson and his friends are collecting donations to help people in their community.
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — A St. Louis Park pumpkin display is raising money for their local food shelf.
Gary Peterson started carving and painting three pumpkins over a decade ago. It’s now grown to over 100.
“I’ve heard people say they’ve come from Hutchinson,” he said.
Peterson along with two of his neighbors have spent the last 14 years growing their display, turning it into a neighborhood event.
“It’s been incredible, I just can’t believe how much this has expanded,” he said. “We did it just because we like to and then people were asking to give us money to cover the cost.”
The trio refused to take people’s money, but then one of them had an idea.
“My neighbor, Steve Leensvaart, just mentioned how about we just do it for the STEP program and the STEP program is our local food shelf in St. Louis Park,” he said.
So, they started to collect donations to help families in need. They’ve raised hundreds of dollars and donated hundreds of pounds of food over the last few years, carving for a cause.
“It is more gratifying every year,” Peterson said.
He estimated they have over 100 unique pumpkins in their yard. They’ve created the displays and come up with new family-friendly concepts for people to enjoy. Peterson said about 30 of their neighbors carved their own pumpkins to be put on display, and it’s been a big hit.
“It’s great. In the last couple of years, it’s turned into more of a neighborhood event,” said Sarah Durch.
“We love this Halloween display, we come every year to see it. We love that the whole community gets involved to craft and carve the pumpkins,” said Jami Gordon-Smith.
“The shading and the details are unbelievable,” said Elizabeth Hanson.
Hanson hopes to take her 2-year-old son trick or treating for the first time but is worried the cold temperatures might keep them indoors.
“We’re going trick or treating hopefully,” she said. “He’s going to be a firefighter, but we’re probably going to have sweatshirts maybe like two pairs of sweatpants underneath. We’re going to be bundled up.”
Gordon-Smith said her family will be out Halloween night no matter the weather.
“Halloween only comes once a year, so you really have to take advantage and enjoy the evening no matter what the weather brings,” she said. “Guess it’s not totally unheard of in Minnesota to have a cold Halloween, but we are going to try and modify and do a lot of layers underneath our costumes and then we might add some hats and maybe some warmer socks.”
Durch also isn’t surprised they’re in for another chilly night.
“Well, what would Halloween be without Minnesota cold? I feel like every time you plan a costume you have to plan for how you can make this work if it’s snowing,” she said.
Peterson said they will have a bonfire and some hot chocolate and cider on Halloween to keep trick-or-treaters warm while they look at their pumpkins.
Click here to learn where you can see the pumpkins and how you can donate.
Jeremy Jourdain was 17 when he was last seen on Halloween 2016.
BEMIDJI, Minn. — The search for Jeremy Jourdain, who was last seen on Halloween in 2016, continues now eight years later.
Jourdain was last seen at a family member’s house in Bemidji, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs. He left the residence near the 500 block of Wood Avenue after midnight and while people followed him, no one was able to find him.
Jourdain was 17 at the time.
Officials said he was wearing a blue and grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans when last seen. He is Native American and is described as 6 foot 5 and 175 pounds.
If you have any information on his whereabouts, you can contact the Bemidji Police Department at (218) 333-9111. Tips can also be sent to 1-833-560-2065, or you can email ojs_mmu@bia.gov.
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