Tornado leaves St. Louis reeling
It smashed houses, trees, and the airport, but people were spared.
ST. LOUIS - Debris from splintered homes covered neighborhoods around St. Louis, and toppled trees and overturned cars littered lawns and driveways.
Amid such damage, officials appeared awed that a tornado that roared through the area Friday night, striking the airport and nearby suburbs, hadn't seriously injured anyone.
"It almost feels like a little bit of divine intervention when you look at the devastation," said Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who flew over the area to survey the damage.
Nixon said President Obama pledged federal assistance Saturday during a phone conversation. About 750 homes in the St. Louis region were damaged, with fewer than 100 of them rendered uninhabitable, the governor said.
Cleanup swung into full gear Saturday. With the din of chain saws and pounding hammers in the background, homeowners sifted through wreckage while crews scrambled to restore power to 26,000 customers.
At Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, workers boarded up windows and swept up glass in the main terminal, where the twister had torn off part of the roof and blown out half of the large windows. The domed design of the main terminal, dating to the mid-1950s, was the handiwork of Minoru Yamasaki, the modernist architect of New York City's World Trade Center twin towers.
The airport reopened Saturday night for a handful of arriving flights, and officials expected around 70 percent of scheduled arrivals and departures to go on as planned early Sunday. The damaged concourse was likely to remain closed for up to two months.
"We're not going to have the prettiest airport tomorrow, but we will have an operating airport," its director, Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, said.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said he hoped the airport would be back to full capacity by the middle of the week.
Insurance adjusters converged in Maryland Heights and Bridgeton, where roofers were going door to door to offer free temporary repairs.
"It's crazy - like something you'd see in a movie," Tim Kreitler, 27, said as he helped a neighbor clean up.
Vivi Magana, 17, and her parents were trying to clean up the mess at their Bridgeton home, where a huge tree in the front yard had been pulled out. An even larger tree in the back was split down the middle. A sliding-glass door was shattered, and there were holes in the roof.
Magana said the family was in the living room Friday night when her mother heard a roar of wind. As they rushed to the basement, Magana saw a lawn chair smash through the glass door. They emerged when the wind stopped.
"Everyone was screaming to make sure we were all OK," Magana said.
A spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines said one of its planes was damaged when the wind pushed a baggage conveyor into it.
Five other planes on the ground when the tornado hit were undamaged, spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said.
Southwest - the biggest carrier at Lambert, with 85 departures per day - canceled all St. Louis flights through 4 p.m. Saturday.
American Airlines, which operates out of the heavily hit main terminal, said four of its planes were damaged, two significantly.
Crosswinds of 80 m.p.h. buffeted one plane that was taxiing in from a landing, and it was being checked for possible landing-gear damage, spokesman Ed Martelle said. American canceled 51 Saturday flights, 60 scheduled for Sunday, and the first seven scheduled for Monday morning.
"We're going to have to re-create our infrastructure at Lambert," Martelle said. "The question is, how many additional gates can we borrow, because none of ours are going to be functional for some time."
Hundreds of travelers were delayed, and a dozen who stayed in the terminal Friday night were given pillows and blankets, Hamm-Niebruegge said. All had left the airport by Saturday morning, and officials thought most were staying with friends or family. Still, Hamm-Niebruegge said, it could have been worse - the storm hit on a night when the airport is generally less busy.
A fuel barn nearby was also damaged, but Hamm-Niebruegge said that had not created a safety issue.
Airport officials said they would request federal, state, and local help with the cost of repairs.
"Obviously, it's millions of dollars," Hamm-Niebruegge said. "But we don't have an estimate for that yet."
Scott Truett, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said it was possible a tornado that touched down near the St. Charles County town of New Melle was the one that ripped into the airport and apparently other parts of St. Louis County.
If so, the tornado sustained itself for about 30 miles.
Truett said the twister followed the same track as one that tore up the area in January 1967, when one with winds of up to 200 m.p.h. ripped a 21-mile-long path of destruction across St. Louis County.
That tornado stayed on the ground for roughly 35 minutes, causing an estimated $15 million damage and killing three people.
"Certainly, yesterday was a pretty high-impact event," said Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. "I can't recall the last time an airport was hit, and hit this severely."
