Airplanes Again Landing at Lambert-St. Louis Late Saturday After Partial Tornado Cleanup

A little more than 24 hours after a tornado ripped the roof off part of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and shattered huge plate glass windows, aircraft was landing on the runways Saturday night.

With rain periodically throughout Friday and Saturday, the interior of the most damaged Concourse C of the airport was soaked and scattered with debris. No one was coming in or out of Concourse C.

However, airport officials reported that runways were all fine, and a handful of incoming aircraft landed by 8:45 p.m. Saturday night. Some were said to be shuttling in airline crews for future flights out.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay tweeted about 10:15 p.m. Saturday: "Welcome back, planes."

Officials said Saturday they hoped to have Lambert up to 70 percent operational by Easter Sunday morning, as long as electrical power was restored.

Slay said he was looking to have the airport 100 percent operational by the middle of the week.

A tornado that ranged from EF1 to EF4 on the destruction scale (with EF5 being the worst) traveled 22 miles west to east across the St. Louis region Good Friday, striking the airport about 8 p.m.

Neighborhoods and homes were whacked in the storm—some destroyed, yet there were no fatalities. The Bridgeton community appeared to take the brunt of the rotating winds.

Power was out to some 47,000 customers at the height of the disaster, with Ameren working furiously to repair downed lines and poles snapped in half by high winds.