Gridlock alert! Thanksgiving travel set to be the heaviest since 2007 as 49 million people hit the road for the holiday weekend

Americans took to the roads, air and railways on Wednesday for what is expected to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in almost a decade.

Almost 49 million people are expected to travel 50 miles or more between Wednesday and Sunday, the most since 2007, because of lower gas prices and an improving economy, according to AAA.

A foreboding sign of things to come also made a striking image Tuesday night after a wreck on an LA freeway caused 16 lanes of gridlock, miles long. 

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The ‘complete gridlock’ on the 405 freeway, one of the busiest routes in the country, was captured by ABC 7’s helicopter. 

The news channel posted the aerial footage on Twitting, quipping that it appeared motorists were taking part in the viral Mannequin Challenge. 

LAX officials say 2.3 million people are expected to pass through the airport during the Thanksgiving travel period. 

On Wednesday, a strong, fast-moving storm temporarily grounded flights in the Houston metro region.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered that flights be grounded at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston as severe weather passed through. The order later was lifted.

The FAA reported that arriving flights were experiencing delays of about 15 minutes.

But otherwise, the weather appeared to be cooperating for the most part, with no significant issues, National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley said. 

There was light rain in Chicago, a major airline hub, but delays were only averaging 15 minutes, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.

‘It looks pretty quiet across the country today; I’ll take it,’ Seeley said.

For those who didn’t want to drive, Amtrak was adding some extra trains Wednesday and Sunday between Chicago and Milwaukee, its biggest Midwest corridor, spokesman Marc Magliari said. Some Midwest trains have been sold out for several days, he said.

Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman said the railroad was prepared to handle extra riders.

‘This is a day when we need everything to go right in order to not have a serious issue with delays, with folks being backed up into stations,’ Moorman told reporters at New York’s Pennsylvania Station. 

‘Knock on wood when I say this, everything’s going well.’

And while many look forward to eating turkey and watching football, others are ready to abandon another, more recent, American pastime: rehashing the rancorous election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. 

Many say they hope they can leave politics behind — even for just a day.

‘We’ll avoid it,’ said 47-year-old boilermaker Kevin Baumann, who stopped in central Montana Tuesday on his way home to Spokane, Washington, after working on a coal plant in Iowa. 

‘We’ve got bigger things to talk about during the holidays.’

James Arnold, 18, a freshman at Eastern University in Philadelphia, expects that the election will be a big topic of conversation during Thanksgiving dinner at his family’s home in Silver Spring, Maryland.

‘My family loves to talk about things together and the election is something huge,’ he said Tuesday while waiting for a train.

‘Every holiday they sit down and talk about things like that,’ he added. ‘It’s going to be interesting.’

The weather appeared to be cooperating for the most part, with no significant issues as of Wednesday morning, National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley said. 

There was light rain in Chicago, a major airline hub, but delays were only averaging 15 minutes, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.

‘It looks pretty quiet across the country today; I’ll take it,’ Seeley said.

For those who didn’t want to drive, Amtrak was adding some extra trains Wednesday and Sunday between Chicago and Milwaukee, its biggest Midwest corridor, spokesman Marc Magliari said. 

Some Midwest trains have been sold out for several days, he said.