This sound terrible. My parents were flying on DL from abroad into ATL one time (in the evening about 5 yrs ago, so pre 9/11), which was closed due to weather. The plane diverted to SAV, where they sat for a couple of hours until a makeshift immigration & customs checkpoint was set up and some agents were scrambled together. Then people were "escorted off" row by row to be checked, and after that everybody pretty much slept in the airport. DL provided pizza and water... They finally made it to ATL the next morning (having paid for & lost the first night's hotel). All in all not so bad I suppose, and certainly better than what NW did above.