Sunday's high winds snuffed out the hopes of thousands in the area after Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama canceled campaign rallies.

Clinton was forced to abandon an event at Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke where thousands of supporters were anxiously waiting after the wind grounded her plane and a brush fire blocked Interstate 81.

Later on Sunday evening, Obama's campaign canceled his appearance scheduled for this morning, also because of the wind.

A disappointed crowd at PH was left to listen to a phone message from Clinton, in which she promised that her husband, former president Bill Clinton, would be at the school today.

Excitement had been building throughout the weekend with Virginia set to vote Tuesday in the state's first disputed presidential primary in decades. Earlier Sunday, a line of people hoping for tickets to this morning's event had snaked around an entire city block outside the Obama campaign headquarters.

Trish White-Boyd, an Obama volunteer, said she was disappointed he wasn't going to make it.

"I'm sure a lot of people were," she said.

Many of the 1,500 people in the PH gymnasium for the Hillary Clinton event had spent hours in line, buffeted by whipping winds. About 2,000 were still outside, waiting to get in, when word of the cancellation started rippling through the line outside the school.

"Why doesn't the Secret Service or her campaign workers come out and tell us officially?" wondered Frank Merryman, who drove from Lynchburg and had been shivering in the wind for about an hour.

The line broke up quickly once those outside learned there would be no rally. Police and emergency workers rushed to one man in a Virginia Tech jacket who fell and said he was in too much pain to get back up. An ambulance soon arrived.

Inside, the crowd let out a groan when a campaign representative said he had "some really bad news."

"I'm really bummed," said Kellie Reynolds, who also had traveled from Lynchburg. "We froze in that line."

She said she planned to make it back this evening to see Bill Clinton.

"We've been here since about 2 o'clock," said Paul Englehart. "I was really looking forward to seeing her."

Englehart said he hadn't made up his mind whether to support Clinton or Obama, her rival in the Democratic primary.

A few hundred people filed out of the gymnasium once it became clear Clinton wasn't coming.

But when her voice filled the gymnasium, saying "Hey everyone, this is Hillary Clinton," those who stayed in their seats cheered so loud and long that they drowned her out.

"I am just so unhappy about not being with you," she said. "We've been juggling our schedules and I don't want to leave you out."

Clinton said her husband would speak at PH at 6 p.m. today. "He is very much looking forward to it and I only wish I could be there," she said.

Bill Clinton's visit will coincide with a visit from Republican contender Mike Huckabee, which means that Roanoke will play host to two former Arkansas governors this evening.

Huckabee will appear at 7:15 p.m. at the O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke.

In her remarks, Hillary Clinton vowed to address health care and the economy, adding that "it's important that everybody be involved."

"I appreciate her taking the time to at least call and talk to us," said Colleen Strayer.

"It was disappointing. It would be a neat experience for her," she added, gesturing towards her 9-year-old daughter Leah Newton.

"I want to see Bill," Leah said.

Carolyn Dull, a campaign volunteer positioned at the gymnasium door, said she was "wallowing in disappointment."

"We were all so excited and this is a big letdown."