Chuck Herrin, an executive with digital security firm F5 Inc., was in Manila on Friday when his airline told him a technology outage meant his flight back to the United States had been canceled.

Herrin then asked his hotel to extend his reservation — but it couldn’t because its computer system was crippled, too.

Like many other travelers Friday, Herrin was stranded by a global meltdown of computer networks that hit airlines, hospitals, 911 centers, package delivery companies and office workers’ laptops.

The irony of a technology expert getting stuck by a technology failure shows that it’s hard to avoid being caught up in computer meltdowns that are far beyond our control. And Herrin had a note of caution for all of us: We may not be out of the woods yet.

Herrin said the computer outages — which experts largely attributed to a glitch in a software update to Windows computers from the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike — was so unusual that there could be unexpected and lingering problems with websites and computer systems for a few days.

“This will not be a normal week,” Herrin said. “Bake a little flexibility into your plans.”

But Frank Dickson, group vice president of security and trust at the technology research firm IDC, said CrowdStrike quickly dispatched a fix to its software error. He doesn’t believe people will experience lingering problems with computer systems.

If you paid a bill online in the past day, placed an online shopping order, booked a travel reservation, made a medical appointment or were waiting for a direct deposit of your paycheck, Herrin said it’s a good idea to double check that what you expected to happen actually did happen.

In Manila, Herrin eventually was able to rebook the flight and extend his hotel stay. He joked that he planned to enjoy his unexpected extra time in the Philippines, maybe by doing “analog” activities like taking walks.