At a hearing last week on efforts to update the nation's air transportation system, Mr. Mica, a Florida Republican, predicted "massive delays and backups throughout the system this summer."

He predicted delays of government business as the Parliament flexed its muscles and members explored the boundaries of their power.

Officials predicted widespread delays at the airports today and tomorrow, with hundreds of flights already canceled and thousands of travelers stranded during the holiday weekend as the storm paralyzed airline hubs throughout the Middle West.

Mark J. Gregory, a vice president of Kerr Drug, which owns 102 pharmacies in North and South Carolina, predicted some snarls and delays for customers next month, but said, "It can't be as bad as early this year."

Simulations published in 2010 predict delays of at the most tens of milliseconds for high-priority traffic.

They already knew, from turning on "Good Day, New York," that Metro Traffic had predicted delays because of the rain.

Predicting delays in a project that engineers say is the largest of its kind in the country, he said, "their grandchildren won't have spent the money yet."

And several portfolio managers predicted delays in offering some $7 billion in new junk bonds.

Officials at Amtrak and the L.I.R.R. predicted delays on this morning's commute because the fire destroyed the automated signaling system that directs traffic in much of Penn Station, the nation's busiest rail terminal.

That is why industry analysts predict future delays in the FTS-2000 procurement process: each vendor, realizing its importance to the bidding process, can be quick to object to bidding procedures to push the odds in its favor, the analysts said.