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ATLANTA — <\/span>Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed Monday as powerful storms<\/a> swept across the eastern half of the country and a partial government shutdown<\/a> affecting airport security screeners dragged into a second month.<\/p>\n The disruptions come at an already challenging time for air travel, in part because the shutdown that began Feb. 14 has strained staffing<\/a> at some security checkpoints. At the same time, airports are crowded with spring break travelers and fans heading to March Madness<\/a> games, the annual NCAA men\u2019s and women’s college basketball tournaments.<\/p>\n Flight delays and cancellations piled up Monday at some of the nation\u2019s largest airports, including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The storm system that dumped heavy snow across the Midwest raced toward the East Coast with the potential for high winds and tornadoes, the National Weather Service warned Monday.<\/p>\n More than 4,400 flights scheduled to fly into, out of or within the U.S. on Monday have been called off, and roughly 10,400 other U.S. flights were delayed, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Nearly 290 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Tuesday have been canceled.<\/p>\n Kelly Price, who was trying to get home to Colorado after a family vacation in Orlando, Florida, said her Sunday night flight wasn\u2019t canceled until early Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cBy that time the only place for us to sleep was the airport floor. So we\u2019re all tired and frustrated,\u201d she said, adding that the soonest she and her family could book another flight doesn\u2019t leave until Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n The nationwide cancellations included about 570 in and out of Chicago O\u2019Hare International, more than 430 at Atlanta\u2019s Hartsfield-Jackson International and over 270 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to FlightAware.<\/p>\n Earlier Monday, citing severe weather, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Hartsfield-Jackson and Charlotte Douglas International Airport, along with ground delays at JFK and Newark Liberty International Airport.<\/p>\n Danielle Cash found herself stranded in St. Louis on Sunday while trying to get home to Tampa, Florida, after a weekend girls\u2019 trip to Las Vegas. Now she\u2019s spending several hundred dollars more than planned on a hotel room in a snowy city she wasn\u2019t dressed for.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was 80 degrees in Tampa when I left and then going to Vegas,” she said. \u201cAnd it was 90 degrees in the desert.\u201d<\/p>\n Cash said she\u2019s now booked on a flight that will take her to Tennessee before finally returning to Tampa by Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n The storms are also unfolding just as airport security screeners missed their first full paycheck over the weekend. The current partial government shutdown affects only the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration.<\/p>\n Democrats in Congress have said Homeland Security won\u2019t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti<\/a> and Renee Good<\/a> in Minneapolis earlier this year.<\/p>\n It is the third shutdown in less than a year to leave TSA workers temporarily without pay<\/a>. Once the government reopens, employees will have to wait for back pay.<\/p>\n