Midwest - Storm Causes Extensive Damage at STL (4/22/11)

Press conference schedule for 2130 CDT

http://www.kmov.com/home/Storms-cause-damage-at-Lambert-Airport-minor-injuries-reported-120523519.html

ST. LOUIS (KMOV) – Brutal storms that whipped through north St. Louis County Friday night caused extensive damage to St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Airport spokesperson Jeff Lea says high winds caused the glass to break and blow into Concourse C and Terminal One on the upper floors. Minor injuries were reported.

A News 4 viewer also reported damage as seen through an airport photo showing a vehicle dangling over a parking garage wall.

There are also reports of damage to other vehicles in the airport parking lots. Emergency vehicles are on the scene.

Officials also report gas leaks and power lines down near the airport.

FAA

AIRPORT CLOSURES

AIRPORT TIME REASON REOPEN
STL 04230154 TORNADO DAMAGE UNKNOWN

:eek

Pics at :KMOV.com (http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Storms-cause-damage-at-Lambert-Airport-minor-injuries-reported-120523519.html?gallery=y&img=0&c=y#gallery-image)

1100p EDT - Here's the live video (its 1000p CDT in St. Louis and the news is now live:

http://www.kmov.com/home/Click-here-for-frequent-live-weather-updates-120462049.html

Major tornado in St. Louis this evening with extensive damage at Lambert Intl Airport. Airport closed UFN. At least two aircraft damaged, with pax on one. More info here: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-on-st-louis-damage.html

More tornadoes are likely Sunday through at least Tuesday.

More info here: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-on-st-louis-damage.html

More tornadoes are likely Sunday through at least Tuesday.

Love your blog by the way. Quick OT question - I have three coworkers flying to KC for a 3 week visit to Overland Park KS. One of them is interested in going "storm chasing", any recommend for him ? I'll be heading down there myself, but not until July - I'll take heat over tornadoes any day !

RE: Overland Park. The Hyatt Place "Overland Park Convention Center" (there are two in OP) is very nice and reasonably priced. It is where I generally stay when I'm in town.

There is a full service Marriott that is very nice and the Hilton Garden Inn is fine.

Of course, the place to eat in the area is Jack Stack Bar-B-Que at 95th and Metcalf. Any of the hotels can give you easy directions, it is very close.

Is he a storm chaser? If not he should go with a tour group. People nearly got killed a week ago today (Saturday) trying to chase the tornado at Dunn, NC. The tornado got them and flipped their car.

There are a number of tour companies. I have a friend who works with: http://www.tempesttours.com/ This is the safe way to chase plus you are more likely to see a tornado this way.

If you and your friends are interested in weather, please allow me to modestly recommend my book, Warnings. It is the true story of how we unlocked the mystery of storms but it is written like a mystery novel. It is an easy, uplifting read and it has gotten great reviews. It has a 5-star rating at Amazon and you can see some of the reviews from critics here: http://mikesmithenterprises.com/book.cfm

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Mike

The STL-DFW flight Sunday evening has been cancelled. Rebooked Monday. Hopefully they are up and running again by then. The nice thing is you have PLENTY of wide open concourses.

The STL-DFW flight Sunday evening has been cancelled. Rebooked Monday. Hopefully they are up and running again by then. The nice thing is you have PLENTY of wide open concourses.
ssafro1,
If STL isn't open by then you might want to try either MCI or CMI.

Visit:

http://www.kmov.com/home/Watch-live-streaming-storm-coverage-117035813.html

You can watch live streaming coverage of KMOV News, which is doing an extended Saturday morning newscast to cover the St. Louis Tornado damage.

Damage is quite bad, not only at the airport, but the surrounding community.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected in the St. Louis area.

ssafro1,
If STL isn't open by then you might want to try either MCI or CMI.

SPI is closer and has two direct DFW flights.

The STL-DFW flight Sunday evening has been cancelled. Rebooked Monday. Hopefully they are up and running again by then. The nice thing is you have PLENTY of wide open concourses.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking they might have to do. If a majority of the damage is in the C concourse, they have plenty of space in the A and B concourse, and it might not take too much work to re-open the currently closed D concourse. And then there's the East (Southwest) terminal which probably has a few spare gates. Since STL isn't a busy airport, they probably could get things up and running soon in those other concourses. It might be hectic and confusing, but if they need to get flights coming and going, then it would work.

Hey, Mid America Airport's available. :D :D :D

I had them protect the DFW-BTR portion of the flight Sunday evening bc otherwise I could not get back into BTR until Tuesday.

It looks like Terminal 2 (southwest) and concourse A in term 1 look ok. I am going to try and book a 1 way STL-DAL on Southwest... then shuttle it over to DFW. Did the refundable fare in case anything changes. AA said they would refund the STL-DFW portion.

Has a major airport ever been hit a tornado before? All that glass makes it one of the worst place to be during a tornado.

Has a major airport ever been hit a tornado before? All that glass makes it one of the worst place to be during a tornado.

Yes, DAB on Christmas Day 2006. I describe the incident in my book Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather.

Interestingly, the whole science of tornado forecasting began in 1948 when an airport (Tinker Air Force Base) was struck by an unexpected tornado.

The FAA forbids air traffic control personnel from getting tornado warnings! I also describe that in the book. More here: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/04/miracle-in-st-louis.html

Has a major airport ever been hit a tornado before? All that glass makes it one of the worst place to be during a tornado.

Since hurricane Katrina got hit harder in MSY back on August 2005. The airport got a badly damaged the roof and it was too much flooded everywhere in city of New Orleans. All of those people were evacuated out of homing, churches, schools and everywhere else. All TSA peronnel were evacuated flight from MSY. When they donating the money for damaged the city of New Orleans. Lots of those people are stranded at home and they have no electrically on for a months. National Guards who need helps with those people to given out foods, water and first-aid kits.

Flights into the airport have already resumed for some airlines, so it's not as all gloom and doom as it sounded yesterday when they were saying it was closed indefinitely, apparently when they meant overnight.

Which is of course good news.

Flew out of STL (East Terminal) at 1pm today. Terminal was back to normal operations, flights was on time, security line not long at all. No issues.

We did taxi past the C concourse.. that is another story!

ssafro1,
If STL isn't open by then you might want to try either MCI or CMI.

And of course there is always BLV. :p http://www.flymidamerica.com/

Airport director was on the news this morning saying they will will rebuild Concourse C. Will take a few months.

Airport director was on the news this morning saying they will will rebuild Concourse C. Will take a few months.

So you've got an old, half-empty airport with shuttered concourses and little chance of expanded service and you're going to spend money to rebuild? Bizarro logic to me.

Airport director was on the news this morning saying they will will rebuild Concourse C. Will take a few months.

So you've got an old, half-empty airport with shuttered concourses and little chance of expanded service and you're going to spend money to rebuild? Bizarro logic to me.

This comes from a friend who used to work at BOS, but transferred to STL to be closer to family.

Someone told her that Concourse C foundation's was moved by the tornado and it's going to torn down and rebuilt.

But this is just rumor as far as I'm concerned.

But agreed... I'm surprised they aren't right next door at Concourse D as an example.

Spend money to rebuild something that will sit mostly unused.

This comes from a friend who used to work at BOS, but transferred to STL to be closer to family.

Someone told her that Concourse C foundation's was moved by the tornado and it's going to torn down and rebuilt.

But this is just rumor as far as I'm concerned.

But agreed... I'm surprised they aren't right next door at Concourse D as an example.

Spend money to rebuild something that will sit mostly unused.

I flew in and out of STL earlier this week. We were on AA and came into a D gate. It looks like AA is only using 6 gates in D which I think is less than half. I dont get rebuilding. I guess they cant acknowledge that they arent getting that traffic back.

If C needs to be torn down -- (and that's still an *if* -- first reports I had heard said C needed to be torn down, but that has been said less in the last week and a half) -- it would be rebuilt using the insurance proceeds, not out of airport funds.

D is not a viable long-term solution. The concourse is VERY narrow, there are limited food / beverage / retail options.

If C needs to be rebuilt it would be designed as a much more modern, passenger-friendly design -- think along the lines of the East Terminal.

Greg