Monsoon! Part one

Last Friday I had the unexpected--and unwanted--opportunity to explore the Burbank airport due to a monsoon in Phoenix.  How did that happen, you ask?  Let me tell you about my adventure.

Friday afternoon I checked the status of my flight, glad to see it was on time.  I noticed the wind was picking up and the sky filling with clouds, but didn't worry about it.  K and I stopped at Jamba Juice on the way to the airport; while I waited in the car I saw quite a bit of lightning to the west.  As we merged onto the freeway the clouds burst and rain poured down, slowing traffic.  My first monsoon, or summer storm, had arrived.  "I hope your flight isn't delayed," said K.  We arrived at Sky Harbor safely, and I went through security quickly.  At my gate I was relieved to see the flight was still expected on time, though I heard announcements of diverted and delayed flights.  (Today I heard there was an hourlong ground stop during the storm, which included a dust storm.)  Soon, however, my bubble of relief popped as my flight joined others diverted to Las Vegas.  The gate area was full of passengers waiting, eating, reading, talking, uncertain of when they would be on their way.  Some of the sound system did not work, so I kept getting up to check the monitors for the latest information.  Even when I could tell someone was making an announcement I often could not tell what they said due to people talking.

Finally, my plane, which had left Nashville about 2:15 Pacific time, arrived and we boarded, taking off at 9:55, three hours behind schedule.  The 1 1/2 hour flight to Burbank was smooth, we landed, some passengers got off, others boarded and prepared for the trip north to Oakland.  After a few minutes the captain announced the flight was canceled; the co-pilot had " timed out" and could not fly any more.  Since they had not been able to find a substitute we were out of luck.  I hurried off the plane in order to be one of the first in line to get a new ticket and whatever else was offered.  Southwest gave us each a travel voucher for $200, and booked many on flights to Oakland Saturday, but they had no hotel vouchers, I suppose because there had been other flight problems.  What were we to do?