They can definitely wreck airport operations. I was trying to leave Atlanta a few years ago, and I'm watching this nasty line of storms moving in. It looks like if we leave on time we can just make it. Of course we don't leave on time, and they do a full ground stop as we are hitting the main taxiway because it is raining so hard nobody can see what is going on, not to mention crazy winds and microbursts.
The line of storms finally move over, but the winds switched 180 degrees, so they had to reverse airport operations, which is not that easy at a big airport, and get everyone turned around and going to the correct end of the runway. We ended up being almost 2 hours late, but luckily it was stormy in Dallas and my connection started boarding about an hour late. I got to the gate as they were about 1/2 way boarded. My luck ran out in Seattle, and despite me being first off the plane and sprinting to the gate for the Bellingham flight, they had just closed the door. Alaska ended up paying $500+ to provide me a one way rental car from Seatac to Bellingham, and I got credited that leg of the flight.