Travel advice please

[kerry]

We were scheduled to leave for an 8 day tour to India tomorrow (3.24). Just got a call from American Airlines (11pm 3.23). Flight has been canceled since we're having a heavy winter storm here in Denver. AA rescheduled us for a Thursday departure Denver--Chicago--Delhi. I'm skeptical of the new schedule. Only 45 minutes between flights in Chicago and initial flight leaves Denver late afternoon making it more likely to be late.
But more than just the bad connection times, I'm not sure what all our options are. Plans are thru a tour company. Left them a message. Don't know if it's possible to join the tour one day late. Even if it is possible, 8 days to and from India was an extremely short trip to begin with. 7 days seems too short.
Anybody been in this situation before and can offer advice? We usually travel on our own and aren't familiar with the protocols of group tours.
I'm tempted to call it off if the trip gets reduced to 7 days but I'm not sure how refunds work in these kind of circumstances. I'd be tempted to continue if our return flights were pushed back a day so we got the 8 days, but that would put us out of sequence with the rest of the people on the tour.
Damn.