No, I would say a storm of this magnitude hits the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast about once every 5 years (more often in BOS, but that's a different and more limited situation). December has had more snow in PHL than all of last year. And, obviously, the timing of this one on a peak holiday travel weekend is extraordinary.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect an airline to be able to handle calls in this situation within 10 minutes. It would be nice to see them answer calls within 30 minutes. If it's taking an hour, one might think that it would be worth considering whether additional resources should be spent to address this problem. I have no idea whether that would be a good use of limited funds. Perhaps money could be spent to make it easier to rebook on line?