A Few Arrivals Only -- Some Departures Return On Sunday

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (KSTL) tells ANN that it is re-opening less than 24 hours after it sustained extensive damage from a storm Friday night. The National Weather Service has confirmed that damage at the Airport was part of an incredible trail of destruction caused by an EF-4 Tornado. It was the strongest tornado to hit the St. Louis area since 1967. As many as nine in-bound flights from three airlines (AirTran, Delta and Southwest) were scheduled to land at Lambert after 5 p.m (Saturday). The Airport and airlines are working to restore a majority of inbound and outbound flights for Easter Sunday, but a full schedule of flights will take a few more days because of heavy damage to the C Concourse. Lambert is working to temporarily move four airlines off that damaged concourse to vacant gates in Concourses B and D.

Travelers or people planning to pick up passengers at the Airport are still urged to contact their respective airlines for more specific information regarding the return of departing and arriving flights at Lambert.  Lambert has been operating on generator power since the Friday storm. Full power is expected to return sometime Saturday evening, which will help the Airport and the airlines restore operations more quickly. Saturday afternoon, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon toured the storm devastated areas in the St. Louis region including Lambert. 

"It is absolutely amazing that an F-4 Tornado would hit an airport and a highly populated area and it have zero fatalities," Nixon said during a news conference Saturday afternoon. "It's almost divine intervention when you look at the damage."

Lambert employees, contractors and mutual aid workers worked overnight and through Saturday to clear debris from the damage caused when the Tornado blew through the Airport blowing windows and ripping off a major section of the C Concourse roof. Five people were treated and released from the hospital suffering minor injuries. Work continues to board up windows and address other repairs so flight operations can begin. There is no timetable on when the facility will be fully restored.

FMI: www.flystl.com