Long Island woman, stranded in war-torn Middle East, finds her way home

Returning home from a vacation can be bittersweet, but for Donna Caltabiano, a frequent traveler, touching down at Kennedy Airport on Sunday morning was extra sweet.

"I almost started crying," Caltabiano said, soon after collecting her luggage upon returning from Dubai. When she was asked at customs if she said anything to declare, she told the officer, "I’m glad to be back. That’s what I really want to declare."

Caltabiano, who lives in Floral Park, was among the tens of thousands of travelers who were left stranded in various cities across the Middle East after the United States and Israel launched a war with Iran.

The State Department urged Americans to return to the United States, but more than 19,000 flights into and out of the Middle East were canceled in the first days of the war as airports and airspace closed across much of the region.

As the widening war enters its second week, most flights — about 70% — leaving from Qatar and Bahrain were still canceled as of Sunday morning. Many flights from Dubai were starting to depart on schedule, according to the flight tracking group FlightAware.

The State Department has a hotline (202-501-4444) and a crisis intake form online (travel.state.gov) for Americans stuck in Middle East during the Iran war.

Caltabiano, a retired board of elections supervisor, left New York on her 72nd birthday in mid-February to travel with friends on a three-week trip to Turkey, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, the last stop on the trip.

The group was supposed to tour the UAE and return to the United States last week, on the eve of hostilities. But when the bombardment of Iran began that weekend, the tour guide said the travelers were to stay at their hotel and to stay away from windows, just in case, as Newsday previously reported.

"The whole city's made of glass," Caltabiano said on Sunday of Dubai. "How do you stay away from glass?"

After the bombings, it was clear she wouldn’t be boarding a flight back to the United States immediately. She tried booking later flights, but those were all canceled.

She and her friends did escape the hotel to explore the city a little. They walked around two human-made lakes and visited a beach. "It was hard to think that we were in a war zone," she said.

Dubai had been the target of scores of attacks since the onset of the war. Fires were reported in some five-star hotels as debris from missile and drone interceptions rained down on the city. A drone also struck Dubai's airport while another knocked out phone banking services.

But those attacks didn't deter tourism. People were strolling around and couples were pushing baby carriages, Caltabiano said. "I never felt unsafe," she said.

At a bar just outside the hotel, "it was party time — all day long in fact," she added.

She finally secured a ticket on Emirates for a flight leaving Dubai on Saturday evening, New York time. The flight back to Kennedy was long but uneventful, she said.

Her plans for her first days back were to sleep, do laundry, and perhaps catch some of her grandchildren’s sports games.

And just after Caltabiano's departure, the UAE said Iran launched 16 ballistic missiles and over 117 drones in new barrages Sunday. The UAE's Defense Ministry said all the missiles were intercepted, but four of the drones landed in UAE territory.

The experience has not deterred Caltabiano from future trips. In July, the mother of five adult children will be visiting Peru. In August, she’s heading to South Africa for a safari, and in October she’ll be in Mallorca for her niece’s wedding.

"I love to travel," she said.

Newsday's Maureen Mullarkey and The Associated Press contributed to this story.