Monday Texas was hit with nasty storms. Monday night we had tornadoes here in New Orleans. Yesterday, Illinois, Ohio, and other states north of a line running east/west across the country’s eastern portion were hit with snow. Today much of the northeast is having to deal with ice and/or snow.

One report we saw last night had Washington National Airport running out of deicing fluid.

Great timing.

With a potential ice storm approaching the DC area, we here at PlaneBusiness were forced to take some preventative action ourselves last night. Our web editor lives in the DC area, and concerned that he might be without power later today, or tomorrow, he had to, in effect, set up blank templates for us to use for this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter. Just in case.

Meanwhile, I’ve stopped counting the number of flight cancellations this latest slap from Mother Nature has caused. But if this pattern of weather continues for the rest of the month, I don’t know how we won’t see the negative after-effects reflected in some airlines’ first quarter earnings results.

Speaking of those deadly tornadoes that ripped through this part of the world Monday night — we are okay. The damage was south of us — as at least one, and possibly two F2 tornadoes touched down on a southwest/northeast path.

Unfortunately over 200 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged, and one woman was killed. Why more people weren’t killed is a mystery. For those familiar with the New Orleans area, parts of the West Bank, Uptown, and Gentilly were the main areas affected.

Unfortunately many folks who suffered damage were, like the woman who was killed, still working to repair damage from Hurricane Katrina. In fact the woman who was killed was living in a FEMA trailer next to her house. She was waiting on news about a potential payment from the “Road Home” program to finish the repair work on her home.

The tornado destroyed her half-finished home, and tossed the trailer she was living in with her daughter down the street like a small toy.

For a winter that started out fairly tame, this one has certainly turned nasty the last couple of weeks.