Chaplain's Blog

Do you like wine? Well, you really don’t have to in order to understand what I am writing about. It is about something that is called a "tail", “legs” or quite simply an aftertaste. In other words, you have already swallowed the precious liquid and then, only then you taste something else, if anything at all. I suspect this is exactly where the situation with the stranded passengers is heading.

Remember Katrina? Of course you do. However since it is no longer main headline, many people stopped realizing that the drama in Louisiana is far from over. I am afraid that this is where the story about stranded passengers is leading. Why? Because in many people’s minds the situation is stabilizing. It is somewhat true, due to reestablished connection between Europe and North America, and let us hope that soon all the stranded will find their way home. However, I think the problem is reaching the point of acceptable negligence. What I mean by that is there might be people, whose confirmed seats (as of tonight) are at the end of next week, meaning MAY! That is still roughly about 10 days and nights away. Imagine that. So, I hope they either leave soon, meaning tonight, tomorrow or maybe on Thursday at the latest, or they know they have to stay longer period. In that case we could place them in shelters and provide home-like conditions. Otherwise there will be no more food or showers provided for them for the time being, not mentioning the fact of sleeping at a 24-hours open terminal with so many people around all the time. Let’s hope and pray for the best.

Our good-old campers took showers in the morning and had two meals provided. There were over 80 of them. At this time however, the numbers have increased. I am not sure by how many, but if I say that total number is about 200 I won’t be off the mark by much. Where are they coming from? Europe! Yes, they just arrived just as many travelers going to Europe by catching any flight over the pond. And since the New York hotels are either booked or incredibly expensive, they will be camping with us for a night or two, in order for them to catch connecting flight to their original destination.

What can you do? I am afraid nothing at this time. But keep your eyes open, apparently every day brings new development. Let us pray that at least the volcano is no longer the problem and the situation goes back to normal as soon as possible.