Power Outage, Storm Disrupt Flights

Hundreds of Continental flights were delayed because of a Texas power outage while hundreds of people at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago scrambled to salvage travel plans disrupted by an earlier storm. The temporary outage at Continental’s main operations center in Houston scrambled computers handling the flow of air traffic. The airline said 300 to 400 flights across the country would be affected. Meanwhile, a Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman said more than 100 flights were canceled at O’Hare by midday and more delays were possible. She said 368 flights were canceled Monday during the height of a powerful storm that saw winds of up to 50 mph.