First flights arrive at the twister hit St. Louis Airport

ST. LOUIS – main airport in St. Louis' partially reopened Saturday as crews cleaned up after a tornado tore through a terminal and destroyed homes in the neighborhood.

Friday night's storm at Lambert International Airport snatched a large part of the roof of the main terminal, allowing the airport to close and divert incoming flights to other cities. National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Truett confirmed Saturday that a tornado had beaten St. Louis – an EF4 storm, the strongest to hit the region since 1967.

The first incoming flights landed late Saturday afternoon. Director of Airport Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said there would be eight or nine o'clock Saturday night arrivals from Delta, AirTran and Southwest. She said that about 70 percent of the recorded incoming and outgoing flights would continue as scheduled from 6 hours on Sunday.

Hamm-Niebruegge said Concourse C heavy damage and could remain closed for two months. A full schedule of flights was expected to last for a few days when airlines were moved from the damaged hall to vacant gates in Piers B and D.

Around St. Louis, debris of shattered homes under the ground in neighborhoods, and topped trees and overturned cars littered lawns and driveways. From the air, a house looked like a dollhouse, which had its roof lifted. Looking down, dining and other content could be seen lingering in the humid rain.

"It was terrible. To do that much damage and no one lost their lives, it's just a blessing," said Charlie Dooley, St. Louis County executive.

There were 500 people at the airport when the storm, KSDK-TV reported. But only four people with minor injuries were taken to hospital Lambert, while an unknown number of others were treated at the scene for cuts from flying glass in debt. There were no reports of injuries elsewhere.

Cleanup swung into full gear Saturday. With the din of chainsaws and hammers pounding in the background, homeowners sifted through wreck, even while the crew scrambled to restore power to 31,700 customers without.

At Lambert, workers swept up glass and boarded up windows in the main terminal, where the twister had severed part of a concourse roof and blown half of the large plate-glass windows. The dome-shaped design of the main terminal, dating from the mid 1950s, was the handiwork of Minoru Yamasaki, the modernist architect of New York City's World Trade Center towers down in September 11 terrorist attacks.

The airport was expected to reopen Sunday, officials said.

Strong winds, possibly from the same tornado damaged an estimated 50 homes in Maryland Heights, not far from the airport and a 45-meter tower fell during the evening Mass in the Holy Spirit Catholic Church. Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said that a strip of damage caused by his community, also near the airport, according to a tornado. Several other St. Louis County communities reported damage to homes and numerous trees and power lines down.

The storm also brought absurdly large hail in some areas – softball-sized enterprises in Warren County, west of St. Louis. Sudden flooding closed some roads, including Highway 67 near Farmington.

At the airport, a spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines Co., said one of its planes was damaged when the wind pushed a conveyor for loading the cargo. Five other aircraft on the ground when the tornado were in order, spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said. Southwest – the largest carrier at Lambert, with 85 departures a day – canceled all flights from St. Louis to four hours Saturday.

American Airlines, which operates from the severely affected main terminal, said four of its planes were damaged, two of them significantly. Cross winds of 80 mph struck a plane that was taxiing from landing when the tornado struck, and that the aircraft was checked for possible damage to the landing gear, spokesman Ed Martelle said. American canceled 51 flights on Saturday, five dozen first seven on Sunday and Monday.

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"We're going to re-create our infrastructure to Lambert," Martelle said. "The question is, how many additional ports we can borrow, because none of us are going to be functional for some time."

Hundreds of passengers were delayed, and a dozen who stayed in the terminal Friday got pillows and blankets, Hamm-Niebruegge said. All had left the airport by Saturday morning, and thought that most officials stayed with friends or family. Still, Hamm-Niebruegge said it could have been worse – the storm on a night when the airport is generally less crowded.

Incoming flights were diverted to Kansas City, according to the website of the airport.

Passengers from at least two aircraft were briefly stranded on the tarmac because Lambert of debris, but were later taken away by bus. An Air National Guard facility at the airport was reported damaged.

"The ceiling was falling'Dianna Merrill, 43, a postman from St. Louis, Lambert was at the airport waiting to fly to New York with a friend for vacation. She said her flight was delayed by weather, and she sought out a window in the hope her plane would pull. But the window suddenly exploded.

"Glass blowing everywhere. The ceiling fell. The glass was hitting us in the face. Hail and rain came in. The wind was blowing debris all over the place," she said. "It was like being in a horror movie. Grown men were crying. It was horrible."

Merrill said she felt lucky to be alive and that the airport workers quickly people stairwells and bathrooms to take them out of harm's way.

Story: Easter spirit endures in a tornado-wrecked churches

Curran Hennessey, a Michigan resident waiting to return home, he told KSDK was on an airplane is attached to the door when the storm hit. He said a strong wind picked up and the plane was about 20 meters. Nobody was seriously injured in that incident.

In downtown St. Louis, Busch Stadium, Cardinals fans officials hurriedly moved into areas such as shelter tornado sirens blared.

Brian Brotons, a spokesman for the baseball team, said thousands of fans were moved to bathrooms, stairwells and corridors in the stadium. There were no reports of damage to the stadium where the game was delayed for 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Vivi Magana, 17, and her parents wanted to clean up the mess in their home Bridgeton, where a huge tree in the front yard was pulled by the roots. An even bigger tree in the back was split in the middle. A sliding glass door was smashed and had holes in the roof.

Magana said the family was in the living room Friday night when her mother heard a roar of wind. When they rushed to the basement, Magana saw a yard smash through the glass door. They came when the wind stopped.

"Everyone was screaming to make sure we were all OK," said Magana.

Severe storms and tornadoes slain last week at least 47 people in several states.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More Source:

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Submited at Monday, April 25th, 2011 at 10:00 am on News by john
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