Family stranded at Hartsfield-Jackson search for answers in desperate situation

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A military family moving from Hawaii to Florida got stranded in Atlanta for days without many options.

The family of eight said that they’d been stuck at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for almost two days and were desperate for answers.

Originally, the Cook family said they were going to drive from Atlanta to Florida, but not only was the car not at the airport, they could not even get a rental car to go out of town.

Eventually, they were forced to board another flight to get to their final destination. The family said they are out thousands of dollars.

“Chaotic is probably the best word I can use to describe it,” Sean Cook said.

The family shipped their car from Hawaii to the mainland United States weeks ago.

“It’s been there for the last three weeks,” Cook said.

However, after the family’s first stop on the mainland in California, they got discouraging news: their car was nowhere near Atlanta. Instead, a tracking website for the car transport said it’s still sitting in the port in San Diego.

The alternative option the Cook family planned to use was to reserve an SUV and a truck to make the drive from Atlanta to Florida so they could fit their big family, and all of their luggage, but in Atlanta, they got similar news as when they arrived in California, no transportation for them to drive was there.

“When we got here, they told us they didn’t have any cars available,” Cook said.

Still needing to get to Florida, the family’s only option left was to fly.

“So, we left Hawaii technically on July 3, and now were on July 5,” Cook said.

Even when they land in their new hometown, they’ll still be without transportation.

“We still have no idea when the car will be there and I’ll still have to come back to Atlanta at some point when it does get here,” Cook said.

The car is guaranteed to arrive in Atlanta sometime later this month.