Tornadoes swipe Missouri, close St. Louis airport

Five people were hospitalized late Friday after being hurt by flying glass and debris at the Lambert-St. Louis international airport when the storms ripped off the roof of the main terminal and blew out windows and doors.

"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 told AFP.

Airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebrugge told a press conference she hoped the airport would be able to resume operations on Sunday, although she warned it would not be at full capacity.

The five injured people had been released from hospital after treatment, she told reporters.

"When you look at the devastation around, it really is a miracle that there were no fatalities and certainly very minor injuries. So, we\'re grateful for that," she added.

The storms, and an apparent tornado, struck the airport in the early evening Friday, forcing airport officials to herd hundreds of 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, with part of its roof ripped off, and half of the windows of Concourse C have been blown out.

Staff spent the night mopping up, but the airport, which handles more than 15 million passengers a year, was still running on its back-up generators on Saturday. The runways were scattered with debris, such as crushed cars, wrecked signs, while nearby houses had been ripped apart.

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.

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