WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that it began rerouting airplanes headed for the East Coast Monday due to the threat of severe storms across the region.

The FAA tweeted at 4:20 p.m. that in addition to rerouting flights, it likely would have to pause departures in and out of airports including those in the D.C. area, New York, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Atlanta.

The airports seeing an impact in the DMV included Reagan National Airport (DCA), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).

A check of each airport’s website showed delays and cancellations as a result of the storms along the East Coast.

According to FlightAware.com there were 244 delays and 205 cancellations at Reagan National on Monday. Dulles had 259 delays and 72 cancellations. And BWI had 203 delays and 152 cancellations.

Some passengers found hotels for the night after learning of their flight cancelation.

“Once we landed, the storm rolled in and there was lightning. And then they wouldn’t let us off the plane because they said it was a safety issue. So we ended up staying on the plane for two hours,” said Lucia Bailey.

Others decided to stick around using their luggage as pillows, waiting for early morning flights.

“Before we took off I got a message on my phone that said my connecting flight got canceled on the way here, so it was too late for me to get off the plane so I was basically stuck here for the night…This is my bed for the night so I’ll enjoy it while I can,” said Elijah Bryant.