Tornadoes swipe Missouri, close St Louis airport

CHICAGO—Tornadoes and high winds tore through the midwest state of Missouri leaving a swath of destruction and badly damaging St. Louis’ airport forcing it to close, officials said Saturday.

Five people were hospitalized late Friday after being hurt by flying glass and debris at the Lambert-St. Louis international airport when the storms blew out windows and doors, and overturned cars, an airport spokesman told AFP.

“All operations are closed here today and there are no flight activities until assessments can be made of the damage and what it will take to make the facility safe enough to resume flights,” airport spokesman Jeff Lea said.

“We will remain closed until further notice,” he said, adding another 10 people had been treated on site for minor scratches.

The storms, and an apparent tornado, struck the airport in the early evening Friday when it was packed with hundreds of passengers, forcing airport officials to herd travelers into safer areas.

“We had a vacuum effect, when the wind sucked anything that moved down the concourse,” Lea said. The main terminal was badly damaged, and half of the windows of Concourse C have been blown out.

“It just looks like someone blew out all the windows and let the rains come in. It was amazing we didn’t have more injuries, considering the damage.”

Staff spent the night mopping up, but the airport was still running on its back-up generators on Saturday. The runways were scattered with debris, such as crushed cars and wrecked signs, and part of the terminal was open to the skies with windows and doors blown out.

Carl Lawrence was by the baggage carousel area when the strong wind hit. “It rushed through the door and threw everybody against the wall,” Lawrence told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Missouri governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency as officials reported some injuries and widespread damage in neighborhoods around St. Louis.

“The state of Missouri is ready to assist at every stage of this emergency to keep Missouri families safe and help communities recover,” Nixon said in a statement.

Fire officials said about 50 homes in a subdivision just off the Airport Road were damaged. No one was hurt but several people had to be helped to escape their damaged homes.

“It was boom, boom, boom,” Alicia Braggs said, recalling the storm. “It seemed like there was some kind of terrible pressure on my roof, and I could feel the wind.”

The National Weather Service has also issued flood warnings for the area, saying the heavy rains will likely cause rivers to burst their banks.

Powerful tornadoes struck several southern and central US states earlier this month killing 44 people and reducing whole neighborhoods to rubble.