Final flights out of Florida arrive in Dallas ahead of Irma

Tens of thousands of people opted to fly out of Miami international Airport and other surrounding airports before all of the flights were halted at the end of the day.

At DFW Airport, people said they were very thankful to have gotten out of Miami just in time. Some passengers were visiting Miami and had to leave early, while others were coming to Dallas to visit.

"I'm pretty sure we're going to be stuck here in Dallas,” said Jasmin Fields. “We're supposed to return to Jacksonville Monday, but it will be in Jacksonville on Monday so I will probably be stuck here for a couple days.”

The majority of people were getting out of Miami and didn't really care where they were going as long as it was out of Irma’s path.

"This is the first year I thought it was actually going to hit and I usually don't normally believe the hype, but it's not going to be good and four days, let's just say that,” said Michael Satter.

One woman who flew from Jacksonville through Miami to get to Dallas for a wedding was dancing in the terminals because she was afraid she might have gotten stuck in Miami with all the flight cancellations. She said there was a standby list of 58 people to get on her flight to Dallas.

Flights on Saturday and Sunday are canceled in and out of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach. In all, American Airlines has canceled 2,400 flights due to Irma.

Teresa Charles was in a race against time to get out of Florida ahead of the hurricane.

“You don't play around. Get out and get out in time,” Charles said, who lives in Stewart, Fla. She fled her home with her husband and daughter after spending hours looking the first available flight they could find.

“A lot of worry, a lot of our friends couldn't get out. We had to drive to Orlando to get out,” Charles said. “Miami was full. My friends that had Miami flights, they cancelled them.”

But they're making the best out of the situation. 

“The Cowboys are playing on Sunday and he said, I looked on StubHub, I can get tickets, so that's how we ended up here. So we're in Dallas to avoid the storm and see the Cowboys,” Charles said.

Jason Anderson and his wife decided to board up their home in Palm Beach, take their dogs, drive to Orlando and spend the night there to catch a flight the next day.

“People said Miami and Ft. Lauderdale are absolute chaos so we didn't stick around to see. Palm Beach was already sold out so we drove nearly four hours north to beat the rush,” Anderson.

But even finding gas to get to the airport was an ordeal.

“Gas stations were out, nothing was left at Home Depot. It was chaos,” Anderson said.

Everyone said they prepared their homes as best they could -- and left as soon as possible.

 “We've got it all shuttered up, shutters on all the windows, everything is closed up inside, security lights on, the whole park we live at is abandoning,” said Frank Romanelli, Venice, Fla.

As for the Charles family, they have a flight booked back home Monday but know the odds of that happening are small.

“Let’s just hope our neighborhood is there, who knows what we're going to come back to.”