Even after the last flight left Miami International Airport Friday night, 47 people remained stranded at the airport.
But they weren’t alone. A skeleton crew of workers from the airport and airlines remained on hand just in case.
Roughly 175 of those workers were American Airlines employees, a group known as the “Storm Riders.” According to American Airlines’ Miami spokeswoman Alexis Aran Coello, the employees — from virtually every department at the airline — volunteered to keep things running so that co-workers who needed to be with their families, could take time off during the storm.
The “Storm Riders” holed up at hotels at or near the airport and pitched in as needed, answering questions and in some cases handing out homemade treats to stranded passengers. After a weekend of ensuring the travelers left behind were taken care of, they are now focused on getting service restarted, she said. During situations like Irma, Coello said, the airline depends volunteer teams like the “Storm Riders” to keep operations going.
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