US AIRPORTS — More than 300 Transportation Security Administration officers quit after a partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown began Feb. 14. Callout rates among TSA officers during the shutdown ran about double the normal rate, according to figures cited by officials.

TSA officers worked without pay during the shutdown and received $0 paychecks. The shutdown held up paychecks for TSA employees, who will have to wait for back pay once the government reopens. Airport security lines stretched for hours at some U.S. airports during the shutdown, and various airports advised travelers to arrive up to three hours early as of Monday. The CEOs of America’s biggest airlines called $0 paychecks for TSA officers, customs officers, and air traffic controllers “simply unacceptable” in an open letter on Sunday and urged Congress to pass legislation to ensure they are paid during future government shutdowns.

The shutdown began after DHS funding expired in February and Congress did not pass a new funding bill, leading to a partial shutdown of the agency on Feb. 14. It was the third government shutdown in less than a year to leave TSA workers temporarily without pay. Democrats in Congress said they will not vote to fund DHS until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the resignations were expected. "It's no surprise that agents are quitting by the hundreds," Kelley said. "As the financial pressure grows, more workers will be forced into impossible choices. The lines will get longer. The delays will get worse," he said.

Jake Rosenfeld, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, said the departures represented a small share of the TSA workforce. "If TSA agents continue to leave their posts, call in sick, or take on second jobs, delays could worsen, leading to missed flights or travelers canceling their trips altogether," Rosenfeld said. "The more than 300 agents who have quit represent less than 1% of the roughly 50,000 agents working in the US," Rosenfeld said. "The high demand for TSA jobs would make it easier for the government to fill vacant roles once the shutdown ends than it was after past shutdowns, but new hires would need to complete a lengthy training process, which could create ongoing travel issues after the shutdown," he said.

Some travelers described disruptions during recent trips. "By that time, the only place for us to sleep was the airport floor," said Kelly Price, who was trying to return to Colorado after a family vacation in Orlando, Florida. "The soonest we could book another flight didn't leave until Tuesday afternoon," she said.

"I found myself stranded in St. Louis on Sunday while trying to get home to Tampa, Florida, and ended up spending several hundred dollars more than planned on a hotel room," said Danielle Cash, who was in St. Louis after a girls' trip to Las Vegas. "I'm now booked on a flight that will take me to Tennessee before finally returning to Tampa by Tuesday afternoon."

Separately, powerful storms disrupted flights in parts of the country. More than 900 U.S. flights were canceled and more than 2,600 were delayed as of Tuesday morning, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport and ground delays at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport due to severe weather. The storm system dumped heavy snow across the Midwest and then raced toward the East Coast with high winds reaching gusts near 50 mph in parts of New York, according to the National Weather Service.