We begin with travel chaos at US airports over the 4th of July holiday weekend. Long lines of air travelers packed terminals from coast to coast with New York area airports hit the hardest. Passengers have faced more than twenty-six thousand flight delays and more than fifteen hundred cancelations since Friday, but conditions are slowly improving. Heavy storms and torrential rains were the main culprits, but the severe weather is not over. Tonight, large parts of the US, from the Carolinas to New York, are bracing for dangerous storms to Independent’s Day.

Passengers in this long line behind me are hoping to get out of the airport ahead of possible storms later tonight. It is a familiar scene in what’s been a very challenging summer travel season. Airlines are trying to bounce back as the airports brace for the crush of passengers heading home after a long 4th of July weekend. On Friday, TSA officers screened more than 2.8 million people across the country, a record, beating their previous high since the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2019. This comes on the heels of an especially frustrating travel week with more than forty-nine thousand flights delayed and more than eight thousand canceled between June 24th through the 30th, in part due to severe weather. Those not taking to the skies, are hitting America’s highways, AAA predicts a record 43.2 million Americans will drive this holiday weekend. That’s 4% increase from the previous all-time high, a 41.5 million in 2019. And gas prices are down for a $1.27 compared to last year. The more severe weather hampered travelers over the weekend as heavy rains in Chicago shut down I-55 in both direction on Sunday. Officials say at least ten cars were trapped in the floodwaters. Meanwhile, in St. Louis, a woman was killed after a tree fell on her car during a storm. If you are hitting the road tomorrow, AAA says the best time drive is before 11AM or after 6PM. As for the airports, the FAA is expecting nearly fifty thousand flights on Wednesday.