A Metro bus is routed around a tree that fell across Highway 99 in north Seattle today, following... 
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)For Deb Norman and Randy Beauchamp, their marriage plans took a back seat to the weather.
The couple, bound to Phoenix from Chicago, was stuck at O'Hare Tuesday evening, unable to fly out because of the delays.
"I'm upset. I've been waiting for this day for a long time," Norman told ABC News Tuesday evening.
"I had a feeling this was going to happen. Two days ago, I was watching the weather and thinking, 'Oh no,'" her relative in Arizona said.
Luckily, the couple was able to catch a flight to Arizona Wednesday morning and their chaplain agreed to marry them in the afternoon.
More than 500 flights were canceled at O'Hare Tuesday and about 400 flights were grounded Wednesday.
Things slowly seemed to be returning to normal Wednesday morning as the weather cleared up slightly in Chicago, but the planes were brimming with passengers and officials warned that it might be difficult to rebook for passengers whose flights had been canceled.
Many passengers have lost hope of flying out on Christmas Eve and said they might not be able to get to their destinations until Thursday, Christmas Day.
Airline troubles are exacerbated by the fact that many airlines cut the number of flights this year to save on fuel. Relatively fewer planes in the air mean fewer seats available to rebook passengers.
Some airlines added flights to accommodate the rush. United Airlines has added 65 extra flights since Saturday to get travelers to their destinations.
Southwest officials said there were some delays in the Pacific Northwest but they cancelled only seven flights today, compared to 92 on Tuesday.
Officials at Seattle-based Alaska Airlines -- which canceled about 500 flights in the western U.S. beginning Friday -- said they were trying to accommodate the 50,000 customers whose flights were canceled, either by rebooking them on Alaska or another airline or through refunds, but they could not promise to make up all the backlog by Thursday. Officials said that standby passengers had been filling planes to capacity, and the airline had called in extra staff at the Seattle-Tacoma airport to try to soothe passengers as they waited. Thousands of passengers were stranded in the Pacific Northwest this week due to continual snow and ice storms that halted airline traffic.
Some Alaska Airlines passengers bound to Burbank, Calif., were taken to the hospital Wednesday morning after they were exposed to fumes from a de-icing fluid that was sucked into the plane's ventilation system as the crew removed ice from the plane's wings. Twenty-five people were treated for eye irritations and other injuries, and officials did not know how the fumes entered the plane.
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