St. Louis reopens airport, cleans up from tornado

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - A semblance of normalcy returned to the tornado-battered St. Louis area on Sunday, with flights resumed at its damaged airport, Easter services conducted in its shattered churches and residents amazed that no one perished in winds that topped 160 miles per hour.

With public transportation restored and roads cleared, planes began landing and taking off Sunday morning at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, which was closed for a day following the tornado's direct hit Friday night.

The National Weather Service said the twister was in the EF-4 category, the second most dangerous tornado rating, producing winds of between 166 mph and 200 mph.

The lights were coming back on across the western portion of St. Louis and adjacent areas where the storm knocked out electricity to nearly 50,000 customers, including the airport.

Local power company Ameren Missouri said more than 1,000 utility poles were toppled and it had 2,000 workers in the streets on Sunday making repairs. Sunday morning 18,000 customers were still without electricity.

At the airport, windows were broken, debris scattered and holes blown in the roof of the main terminal, which remained closed. Plane traffic was moved to other terminals instead.

Southwest, Delta and Frontier airlines were flying in and out of St. Louis on Sunday, and American Airlines planned to resume flights there Monday, airport spokesman Jeff Lea said.

"The planes are landing and taking off," Lea said. "We expect to be up to 60 percent today."

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said he expects the airport, which typically handles about 500 flights a day, to be fully up and running by mid-week.

A powerful thunderstorm had plowed across an 85-mile stretch of Missouri before spawning the tornado just after 8 p.m. local time on Friday. The weather service said the twister touched down in rural New Melle, then jumped to Bridgeton before making a direct hit on the airport, about 10 miles northwest of downtown St. Louis.

It then swept east and across the Mississippi River to Granite City, Illinois, leaving a trail of wrecked houses, tossed cars and 40-foot trees snapped off at 15 feet.

At the First Baptist Church of Ferguson, Missouri, Easter services were held despite damage to the main building, which lost its roof. The worship area was spared major damage, however, and the Rev. Stoney Show led a thankful congregation in a candlelight celebration because power was still out.

"We all made it through the storm, and we are thankful for that," church spokesman Steve Davis said. "There was only one person in the church when the storm hit, and he made it through by standing in a hallway."

St. Louis County officials said at least 2,700 buildings had sustained some damage. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said a preliminary count showed fewer than 100 homes were destroyed.

Several minor injuries were reported, but officials were amazed that there were no deaths or serious injuries from what the weather service called the most powerful tornado to hit the St. Louis area since 1967.

Separately, heavy rains on Saturday in southern Missouri unleashed flash flooding blamed for the death of a man whose car was swept off a bridge by high waters. The body of the motorist, David Langdon, 54, of Hardenville, was found about 100 yards downstream on Sunday.

Several other cars also were swept off roadways, according to the Ozark County Sheriff's Department, and much of southeastern Missouri remained under a flash flood warning.

The Good Friday tornado reached its peak intensity in Bridgeton, where it struck a small business complex not far from the airport.

Inside one building that took a direct hit was Lou Osman, 59, owner of Speed Sports, which builds racing boats. With no basement to run to, he dashed with a customer into a small room at the back of his store -- which ended up being the only part of the building left standing when the storm moved on.

"I was talking to a customer and suddenly we felt the pressure change and we ran into this little room, just 6 by 4(feet), Osman recalled.

When he emerged a short time later Osman said, "The whole building was lifted away except the room we were in."

(Additional reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Steve Gorman and Eric Johnson)