Hey, at least the Big Island has a spare airport.
Of course, the planes that were already inbound had to be diverted to Oahu and Maui because Hilo doesn't have enough hotel rooms to accommodate a diverted flight. Or buses, apparently.
Fun story, maybe a lesson if you're ever in a similar situation: Back in my Alaska daze I was on a flight that was diverted because of weather. I knew the town I was diverted to didn't have enough hotel rooms for everybody on the flight and didn't want to spend the night in the school gymnasium (this is how they handled these situations, I won't bore you with specifics (too late?) but the airport was on an island that literally closed at night so nobody was allowed to overnight at the airport) so as soon as the flight hit the runway I called the hotel to try and reserve the few rooms they had. The guy who answered the phone said they were already aware of the diversion and weren't taking any call-in reservations. "First come first served" show up in person only. Why? I don't know. I guess because he didn't want to enter the reservation into the system because the rooms were going to be sold regardless, and he didn't care how it inconvenienced everybody else. But the hotel was a franchise from a national chain. So I called the 1-800 number and reserved the room that way.
Of course, the planes that were already inbound had to be diverted to Oahu and Maui because Hilo doesn't have enough hotel rooms to accommodate a diverted flight. Or buses, apparently.
Fun story, maybe a lesson if you're ever in a similar situation: Back in my Alaska daze I was on a flight that was diverted because of weather. I knew the town I was diverted to didn't have enough hotel rooms for everybody on the flight and didn't want to spend the night in the school gymnasium (this is how they handled these situations, I won't bore you with specifics (too late?) but the airport was on an island that literally closed at night so nobody was allowed to overnight at the airport) so as soon as the flight hit the runway I called the hotel to try and reserve the few rooms they had. The guy who answered the phone said they were already aware of the diversion and weren't taking any call-in reservations. "First come first served" show up in person only. Why? I don't know. I guess because he didn't want to enter the reservation into the system because the rooms were going to be sold regardless, and he didn't care how it inconvenienced everybody else. But the hotel was a franchise from a national chain. So I called the 1-800 number and reserved the room that way.