Hello All -

I have a flight from PDX to DCA this Saturday morning. I know the hurricane is supposed to be gone from the area by then, but with all the cancelled flights all over the country (and world), I don't know how hard it's going to be to get in to the DC area immediately following the storm.

I was hoping some regular DCA flyers or area residents could give some advice on how the area and airport has weathered storms in the past and how fast normal flight traffic resumes. If I have some advanced warning, I can make changes to my itinerary now or at least plan for the downstream effects if I'm late getting there.

I understand your question about your itinerary.
But, this region has not faced a storm as big and potentially as devastating before. So, there is no precedent.
And until the worst of the storm has passed through late tonight and into tomorrow, there are no substantive answers.
I suggest you check back Wednesday.

Thank you very much. I'll keep my eyes on the news and check back.

While I agree that it will be hard to say until tomorrow,but as a general rule DCA is pretty resilient. Mostly due to the high volume of congressmen/VIPs that fly through. Good luck!

I'm not an expert in this, but if the flight operates, my biggest concern might be the subway system. It's an efficient way to get to/from DCA as well as around town. The weekend will be less of a problem, but if there is no subway on Monday, traffic could be a mess. When DCA has a rare snowstorm, it can mean waiting for hours in a taxi line, even if cabs are being shared. OTOH, taxi fare to most hotels is very reasonable and the ride is quick under normal conditions.

Before leaving home, check that your hotel is open for business, has power and water, and that there are functioning restaurants nearby at least.

dca is a north south runway airport. this storm is going to bring winds out of the west. big planes do not take off in over 40 knots of cross wind . probably not in 35.

" The maximum demonstrated crosswind limit for the 777 is 38 knots. (44 mph) This is what was demonstrated in flight test and is not considered a hard limit, however most operators will respect that." the 777 is considered one of the best crosswind airplanes. dca is almost certain to remain closed until sandy goes to newengland.

there is a bit of flooding around the 14th st bridge on the dc side, and a few of the underpasses.

I would expect DCA to be operating normally by Saturday. While the overall storm is unprecedented, the timing of the strongest rains and wind here suggest less impact than Hurricane Isabel in 2003, which caused significant flooding along the Potomac.

I lived in that area for a dozen years. I was there when Isabel hit.

The subway will be back to running barring something major and unforeseen.

There will be alot of power outages which will take time for that power to be restored due to fallen trees and downed power lines.

During Isabell i was fortunate living on the same power grid as an assisted living center which had priority for restoring power. Coworkers of mine were without power for 2-3 weeks due to all the trees down.

In downtown DC where there isnt much in terms of trees there likely wont be much power issues. It is possible some areas of metro could be closed off because of repair.

since metro stations usually have 2-3 different entry points if all were damaged they would work to open one then work to open others.

DC has gone through previous tropical storms and nor'easters so this wont be that much different than past storms.

the flight traffic is a whole other story. What airline are you flying?

If you are flying alaska this will have no impact. If you are flying jet blue or United then it will probably have some impact on routing and schedule.

If you dont need to travel this weekend and can postpone the travel to a future weekend --then i suggest that. The airlines will let passengers change.

Thank you very much for the input, djp. I'll be flying on Alaska Airlines new nonstop from PDX to DCA, departure of 0900 if I remember correctly without digging out my e-ticket. I'd like to change if I could, but I can't without major downstream problems. It's so important that I be there on Saturday that I'll fly in to some place a couple hundred miles outside the impact zone and drive if I have to.

at 2am local, there is little tidal surge(couple feet max), the wind is reported to be 32-40 from the W, feels more like 14. the river has no whitecaps. steady heavy rain, maybe 1"/hr. i live 4 miles due south of dca, on the flight path. full moon high tide is around 9am, and the wind is supposed to swing to the south. that should bring in some water.

isabel tracked west of the potomac, so she picked up huge quantities of water from the potomac and caused a huge surge along the entire potomac. i do not know if the water reached the runways at dca. dc(suburbs) were shut down and without power for a week or more.

Looks like my question has been answered on the news. The major carriers are stating they'll be resuming full operations in to DC by Wednesday. ^

We have United tickets to Dulles tomorrow morning......what are the odds? I have images of sitting at the airport for hours. We were supposed to leave on Monday for Boston & were able to reschedule.

Metro will be back up and running on a limited schedule at 2pm Tuesday

Just stay in touch with your carrier (online).

IAD is open as we speak. It is just a matter of air carriers getting their aircraft back into operation and schedule resumed. There's no way of predicting a specific flight at a specific time.

The airlines pulled aircraft out of the area. The issue over the next 48 hrs is ingetting the planes back in.

The airports will be operating and the flights are running between those two airports...but the issue is where your plane is located in the system to know if your flight runs

You need to regularly check the airlines for their flight status.

If you have flexibility and don't need to travel this weekend you should be a to postpone it with no change fees on you.