It wasn’t long after Chris McGown and his family landed in Dubai when they first heard missiles overhead.
For the McGowns, who live in Midway, the stop in Dubai was supposed to be the middle of their vacation travels across Asia and Europe.
They arrived in the United Arab Emirates the morning of Feb. 28, the same day the U.S. and Israel launched a major strike on Iran that killed the country’s supreme leader.
The New York Times reports fallen debris and drones have caused fires in the UAE in the days since the conflict began.
As the war continues, the McGown family does not have a clear path out of the Middle East. Nor do many other travelers whose plans were upended by the sudden conflict.
“The number of people that need flights and the geography is making it next to impossible,” Chris McGown said.
He said since war broke out, tourists have been struggling to book flights out of Dubai, only to have itineraries cancelled.
On Wednesday, Dubai-based airline Emirates posted on X all flights are suspended through March 7 due to airspace closures, and people can expect hours-long delays if they call customer service.
McGown said that matches his family’s experience.
“It’s mostly been like we’re on our own to figure it out,” he said. “It’s kind of these boring solutions where, you know, you’re trying to call this number, and you’ve got to try 50 times, and when do you do finally get through, you’ve got to be on hold for two hours.”
Mostly, McGown said day-to-day life feels relatively normal in Dubai, although it’s punctuated by the boom of missiles that sound like fireworks.
“You’ll look outside, and you’ll see a big poof with missile contrails way up in the atmosphere, and it’ll register, like, ‘Oh, that was something exploding way up in the sky,’” he said. “And you’ll see this little poof and the missile contrails and the rocket contrails, and then the windows will shake, and that’ll be that.”
One night, everyone in his hotel was woken up at 1 a.m. and hurried underground. Guests slept on the floor of an underground parking garage for a couple of hours before they were allowed to return to their rooms.
McGown said he mostly feels safe, but the uncertainty has been a challenge. He’s eager to figure out a way for himself, his wife and teenage daughter to reconnect with their other daughter, who’s a college student studying abroad in Spain.
“We’re really anxious to reunite with our other daughter,” he said. “In times like these, your focus gets to be pretty narrow. Money doesn’t matter; possessions don’t matter. The only thing that matters are the people that you love.”
He said his family is grateful to friends and neighbors in Midway, who have gone “above and beyond normal friendship” to try to help them find a way out of the Middle East.
Like other Americans, the family has struggled to get help from the U.S. Department of State or other government officials.
NPR reports some U.S. travelers have been unable to reach the help lines provided or book flights out of countries near Iran. The State Department said Tuesday it will facilitate charter flights out of Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
