Cancelled flights have Americans stuck worldwide

>>> well, the impact of sandy extends well beyond the united states with so many flight cancellations, thousands of tourists are now trapped overseas. nbc's michelle kosinski is in london with that part of the story. michelle, good morning to you.

>> reporter: hi, savannah. right now you might say the situation is improving some with more u.s. airports now opening, but it's worse in others. heathrow , for example, has more flight cancellations today than yesterday. it's left now with thousands of americans stranded all over the world. thousands of others stuck in the u.s.

>> super storm sandy strikes causing death and damage.

>> reporter: sand set big news story here, too.

>> states of emergency.

>> a major disaster is declared in new york .

>> reporter: and affecting many.

>> kennedy is cancelled or closed so we're here for four more days.

>> reporter: from airport around the world, london , frankfurt, paris, no way into new york or many other u.s. cities. jeff and his wife need to get from the city of lights to a place in connecticut that may or may not have power once they land.

>> we need to get a place to stay here in paris, and a little indecision because they don't know how long it's going to be before airports open.

>> reporter: thinking they might be able to get home via montreal this. group is planning on camping for an entire day at heathrow trying to make it to los angeles . the next available flight for some may not be for a week forcing americans to stick it out through the mounting expense and uncertain.

>> we're fortunate that we're able to afford to do that. feel so bad when i'm watching the news.

>> convenienced and a little bit of expense. the new england patriots who played in london barely made it out on a charter flight and made it back to boston on monday. some others got stuck. the gargantuan hurricane sandy and with a phenomenon almost unheard of in these parts had reverberations in european stock markets , as wall street closed and sandbagged markets here lost some volume. investors that fund insurance specialists lloyds of london pulled back, worried how much cleanup from this monster storm could ultimately cost. new york and land-in are connected by commerce of all kinds. more than 7,000 people a day on average. more than 2.5 million last year, fly between jfk and heathrow . sandy now leaving people stuck on both sides of that roiling ocean. americans now stranded across the globe. people here are watching those pictures in horror and what a storm like this can do, and for those stranded some airlines are not helping with the tab for hotels, and the question now is how soon they will be able to get back to the u.s. because things like this that have snowballing effect. some here in london are being told their next flight might not be until saturday or sunday. they are trying to fly to other cities like chicago to get to new york . savannah.

>> could be a while. michelle kosinski in london , thank you.