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Stranded Travelers Gone, but Not Luggage

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 21:00 CST

By CHASE SQUIRES

DENVER - The stranded travelers were gone from Denver's airport by Tuesday, but the stranded suitcases were not.

The airport's two biggest airlines, United and Frontier, said they had cleared out the backlog of travelers stuck when a blizzard dumped up to 2 feet of snow last week. The storm closed the runways for two days and marooned about 4,700 people at the airport Wednesday night.

But piles of misdirected luggage remained Tuesday, lost in the rush to get passengers through the snowbound airport.

"We had bags that came without passengers, and passengers that came without bags," Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said.

Some passengers left their luggage behind in a rush to catch a standby flight or chose to leave the airport rather than wait for delayed bags, he said.

Neither United nor Frontier could say how many bags were left.

Meanwhile, forecasters warned that another snowstorm was bearing down on Denver and other Colorado cities that could rival last week's blizzard and shut down the airport again.

The National Weather Service said the storm could hit Thursday and Friday with 8 inches of snow, high winds and whiteouts along the Front Range, the 170-mile urban corridor at the foot of the Rockies that includes Denver and other cities.

Airport spokesman Chuck Cannon said employees would likely go on snow alert Wednesday, with crews ready to start clearing runways.

Meanwhile, plows were still clearing snow from residential streets Tuesday. Freeways and most thoroughfares were cleared earlier. Mayor John Hickenlooper acknowledged residents' frustration with the pace of snow removal.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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