Local family shares experience stuck in Puerto Rico after U.S entered Venezuela

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - The Coffey family had big plans for the week after Christmas. They traveled from their home in Ashmore, Illinois to Puerto Rico for a week-long cruise.

They were supposed to fly home in the morning of January 3rd. But after they arrived at the airport, they started running into problems.

"The airlines told us nothing and when we got to the airport, the line was wrapped around the hallway," said Annakate Coffey. "We stopped the security guard and all she said was the whole airport is shutdown."

The Coffeys spent the morning with other travelers, trying to figure out what was happening. Soon they got the news that the US had bombed Venezuela and entered the country.

As every flight was cancelled, travelers rushed to find places to stay,

"We watched hotels rise 300,400, 500 dollars a night or more if you could find somewhere to stay," said Coffey. "A lot of people were booking Airbnbs or having to stand outside until they could find something."

The Coffey's original airline said the next flight they could get them on would be Thursday, five days after they were supposed to leave. They were going to have to stay at a different hotel each night until they could fly out. Luckily, the family tracked down tickets through a different airline as soon as the airport reopened, and are scheduled to fly back into the US Monday night.

Coffey missed her first day of her new full-time job after graduating college a few weeks ago. Her mom, a teacher, will miss at least one day of school.

University of Illinois Springfield Professor Emeritus in Political Science Kent Redfield said while the actions the US military took were unique, shutting down airspaces is not.

"If you were trying to fly around the Middle East when we were invading Iraq, you would have gotten a similar kind of situation," said Redfield. "They don't want it to be a situation where a commercial airline wanders into the space and suddenly they've got airplanes they don't know."

Refield predicts that flights near Central America, and Northern South America will continue to be inconsistent in coming weeks. People may start cancelling vacations to the area, or cut trips short due to ongoing conflicts.

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