The Maertens slept on plastic seats at the airport Saturday night after their flight home to Belgium was canceled.

Beside the chair is a wireless microphone used to deliver the news through the gymnasium's sound system, heralded by the four-chime alert often heard in train stations and airports.

Slumped in chairs or out smoking on the street outside the office, travelers swapped tales of being stuck in the airport for 23 hours or ending up in a cockroach-infested hotel.