A woman wrestles with whether to attend a cousin's wedding in California. A high school senior takes fewer visits to distant college campuses. An aunt may not go to her niece's baby shower.

        The ripple effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are being felt in Greater Cincinnati as families reconsider holiday plans, get-togethers and personal visits with one question in mind: Should we fly?

Despite some apprehension, Patty Korchmaros (left) and her mother, Joyce Jacobs, are flying to Los Angeles to attend a family member's wedding. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        For many, much more is at stake than trips for pure pleasure or business. In ways large and small, a reluctance to fly is hitting at trips that mark family milestones and keep loved ones together.

        A new poll by Survey USA for WCPO-TV finds that one in five local leisure travelers say they'll fly less because of the attacks. Forty-four percent of Greater Cincinnatians say family members are afraid for them to fly, too.

        “If this had just been a vacation, I would have canceled,” Patty Korchmaros says of the trip she made to Los Angeles last week for a relative's wedding. “But it's a family member we don't see much. I felt like, well, I should go.”

        Like many people, the Mount Washington woman found herself weighing the risks of a strange new world that dawned nearly three weeks ago. Images of the battered World Trade Center are seared into memories.

        “You can't give up everything and stay in the house as a hermit,” says Joyce Jacobs, Mrs. Korchmaros' mother, who also made the trip. “I'll just prove to the terrorists that I can fight them, too.”

        Others, though, are changing plans.

        Abbey Cohen, a senior at Wyoming High School, is in the midst of planning visits to college campuses. She's considering schools in North Carolina, South Carolina and Colorado.

        “We were planning to fly,” says her father, Lane Cohen. But events of Sept. 11 changed that.

        “I guess it's an emotional response rather than a rational one,” Mr. Cohen says, noting that statistically, flying is safer than driving. “On the other hand, every time you see that tape of the plane going into the tower, it turns your stomach.”

        The decision to avoid flying won't affect his daughter's choice of a college, Mr. Cohen says, but it might complicate matters. “We will see (the campuses) we need to see, and if she gets accepted at the University of Colorado at Boulder, then we'll make the drive. It just takes more time.”

        Mr. Cohen also has told far-flung relatives that if there is a get-together for Thanksgiving this year, his family won't travel by air.

        In some cases, travel is part of a shared experience that strengthens family bonds. But some families have canceled or postponed trips they've been planning for months.

        “We started off saying we're going to go,” says Jack Johnston of Madeira, whose family was to depart a week agofor Italy. “Then it hit us, what really happened (in Washington, D.C., and New York).”

        Mr. Johnston, his wife and children ages 15 and 5 were to travel with Mr. Johnston's father, two sisters and a niece. Concerns about airline security were on their minds, but Mr. Johnston says the decision to delay the trip until next May also was based on “respect for the families, the mourning, the tragedy. It's just not the right time.”

        Many people apparently feel that way. Bookings for leisure travel are down 60 percent at the Carlson Wagonlit Travel branch in Fort Mitchell, owner Jim Ryan says.

        What's more, “We're anticipating a significant reduction in (the number of) people flying home for the holidays,” Mr. Ryan says.

        At AAA Cincinnati, spokeswoman Christina Mullis says many people are delaying trips, rather than canceling. “People who didn't buy trip insurance are rescheduling because they don't want to lose that money.

        “We're urging people to travel,” she says, “despite the fact that it might not be what their gut instinct's telling them right now.”

        Lashauna Turnage, who has three children, saw a Caribbean cruise as a rare opportunity for her and her husband, Vince, to focus just on each other for a few days.

        “It took a while for me to convince my husband to fly, because he's never flown before,” Mrs. Turnage says. “He knew how bad I wanted to go on a cruise, and to drive (to Florida) would be a bit much for us.”

        The Roselawn couple were booked on a Sept. 13 flight to Miami, and from there they were to depart on their five-day cruise. But the attack caused them to scrap their plans.

        “It took so much to get (Mr. Turnage) to say he would go the first time, after this (attack) happened, I knew I wouldn't change his mind,” Mrs. Turnage says.

        Toni Nako of Symmes Township says she's still undecided about attending her niece's baby shower in New Jersey next month. She bought airline tickets for herself and her 7-year-old daughter before Sept. 11.

        “We were really excited about doing this, but I'm really afraid to fly,” Mrs. Nako says. “Intellectually, I can't explain that.”

        She has talked to her sister whose daughter is due to give birth next month. “She's totally supportive of whatever my decision is. She said, "I completely understand.' ”

        For some families, flying is a way of life, a lifestyle habit they're unwilling to break.

        “I don't think any of us feel intimidated by flying right now,” says Janet Blackwelder of Madeira. She's a mother of 10, including a flight attendant for Delta. “I think the airlines are doing the best they can to make it safe.”

        In the days following the attack, four of her children flew home from Hawaii, where they were visiting a sister. One daughter flew into town last weekfrom Salt Lake City to visit family. Another daughter, Beth Bruce, flew to Cincinnati from Arkansas last weekend to attend her high school reunion.

        “My mother-in-law was afraid of me flying,” Mrs. Bruce says. “(But) if we let what happened interrupt our lives so much that we don't do something we were planning for months, then that's what the terrorists want.”

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