St. Louis Lambert International Airport

Lambert Airport Damaged by Tornado Strike

Massive cleanup effort underway; Airport is back in operation

May 1, 2011 | 2 min reading time

This article is 14 years old. It was published on May 1, 2011.

At approximately 8:15 p.m. on Friday, April 22, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport sustained considerable damage from a destructive tornado strike. It was all hands on deck as crews went to work to clean up debris, board up broken windows, and put the airport back into operation.

"We're not going to have the prettiest airport" Sunday, said Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge during one of the many update briefings held in the days following the incident, "but we will have an operating airport." Several flights landed on Saturday, April 23. Lambert was at 70% flight capacity Sunday, April 24 and is currently at 100% capacity.

Concourse C of Terminal 1 had the most damage, with windows shattered throughout and a section of the roof blown off. The East Terminal had some damage but was fully functional. Also, traffic signs at Lambert were uprooted and dozens of cars on the upper levels of the parking garages were damaged.

Early City estimates are that it will take up to two months to restore Concourse C.

For timely updates on progress, follow @flystl on Twitter.

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