PORT ANGELES — In all their planning of their annual family reunion, the Calabrias never considered the possibility of a volcanic eruption.
This week’s trip to Hawaii was intended to be Laura Calabria’s 60th birthday present to her father, Benzenuto Calabria, of Verona, Italy, and her annual visit with her father and mother, Daniela, 59.
But because of the explosive belching of the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, the 29-year-old Port Angeles woman didn’t meet her parents in Seattle on Wednesday for the flight to the island of Kauai to enjoy a weeklong vacation together.
Instead she left to enjoy the islands, which she has never visited before, with only her husband, who asked not to be identified because he is a correctional officer.
He has a different name from his wife because she kept her maiden name after marriage, she said.
“We’ve been planning this for six months at least, if not even more,” Calabria said in Port Angeles Tuesday night.
“We had the whole vacation planned.”
Watched the news
Family members in Port Angeles and Verona had watched, waited and agonized since April 14, when the volcano in Iceland erupted, spewing a plume of ash that winds blew southeast toward northern Europe.
Smoke and ash posed “a significant safety threat to aircraft,” Britain’s National Air Traffic Service said, since visibility was compromised and debris could get sucked into airplane engines.
Flights in and out of Europe were grounded until Tuesday, when a few flights resumed.
Early this week, when the Italian Calabrias were due to begin their journey, the airport in their hometown of Verona was closed.
The airport in Frankfurt, Germany, where they would board an international flight, also was locked down.
And the flight path from Germany to Seattle was right over Iceland.
“I spent like three days hoping and praying that they’re going to make it and when I finally knew they were not going to make it for sure, I crashed completely,” Calabria said.
“I was very disappointed and sad because I never see them. There is one time a year that I see them.”
She said she was ready to cancel the entire trip “but my husband talked me into it.
“My mother is being great,” Calabria said.
“She was as upset as I was but she says it’s nobody’s fault and we can go another time.”
The German airline Lufthansa will give her parents a full refund, she said.
The family was still negotiating with United, on which they were to fly from Seattle to Hawaii, on Tuesday.
Will make trip someday
Her parents will see Hawaii some day, Calabria said.
“I just told them I still want to take them there, but we’re not planning anything in advance anymore. We’re scared of getting our hopes up.”
The Calabrias were among the hundreds of thousands whose lives were disrupted by the volcano.
On Wednesday, airlines toted up losses topping $2 billion and struggled to get travelers stuck in flightless limbo back home after a week of crippled air travel, The Associated Press said.
The aviation crisis even threatened Europe’s economic recovery, the news service said.
But Calabria was philosophical.
“It is something that makes you slow down,” she said.
“This whole chain of chaos that it caused . . . if people understand that as much as you plan life, you have to understand that there’s major things that can happen that you can do nothing about — and just take it kind of easy.
“There’s this nature thing going on and you can’t do anything about it,” she said.
“But at least it didn’t cause harm to anybody.
“So just relax.”
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
