WHY did the airline cancel flights though?
The weather at the terminus was deadly.
Storms come through and flights get behind schedule....eventually, they have to cancel the remainder of the day.
I got stuck at JFK about 15 years ago (2 PM arrival from Germany). Some massive storm in the morning triggered all flights for remainder of day to be cancelled. Airline was not capable of handling this many cancellations. They warned me that I might be stuck for four days...waiting for another flight.
Eventually, they rigged up a flight the next day out of thin air, and it was to take 200 passengers to five different cities down the coast. So to reach Atlanta, I spent nine hours on this make-up flight the next day. For my discomfort...they gave me a $150 voucher (didn’t even cover the hotel costs).