Almost 4,000 flights have been cancelled or delayed in the Southern United States. The storms have unfortunately claimed at least five lives so far. Airports in Texas have been the hardest hit by the latest storm to affect the region.

Unfortunately, the South-East corner of the United States is a hot spot for storms which affect Aviation. Back in September Simple Flying reported that Boeing was relocating its airworthy Boeing 787s under construction. In fact, the aim of this was to prevent the damage caused by Hurricane Florence as much as possible.

The latest storm

The latest storm has seen a number of tornadoes and thunderstorms passing through the Louisiana and Texas area. It is also likely that the storm will affect parts of Virginia and North Carolina. The storm is expected to continue throughout the remainder of Friday.

As a result of the thunderstorms, there has been some flooding. This flooding was fairly intense in some areas and is largely behind the delays. The thunderstorms were also expected to be accompanied by some hail.

Aircraft flying through a storm cloud.
Photo: Pixabay

Flooded garage

The severe weather caused a parking garage at Dallas Love Field to flood. The lower level of Parking Garage A was reportedly completely flooded. It was reported by The Independent that greater than 30 cars were fully submerged. Additionally, CNN quoted a Will Kolb who told that the entire flooding took place inside of the hour that he was in the airport. He added that from an upper level of the parking structure he was required to drive through two feet of water to escape.

The City of Dallas was forced to issue a warning to residents of the city. In a statement to the press, the city warned: "rainfall in the forecast may create high-water conditions throughout Dallas."

Texas Storm
American Airlines was the airline worst affected by the storm. Photo: Tom Boon - Simple Flying

Effect on aviation

The storm had a fairly profound effect on the aviation industry in the area. In fact, a total of over 3,800 flights were delayed by the adverse weather. The majority of delays and cancellations came from the Houston and Dallas areas.

Of the airlines, the most affected were American Airlines with 113 cancellations according to Frequent Business Traveller. Additionally, Southwest had 77 cancellations. The disruption continued today with 80 and 57 cancellations by each airline respectively by 0015 EAD.

Were you affected by the severe weather in Texas and Louisiana? Tell us your story in the comments!