Lambert International ... Luck of the Draw, Not a Miracle

[Mike Peregrine]

I apologize if there are other posts to this effect. I'm almost never in here except to check a forecast or report thread these days. Delete if necessary.

I've had some questions about some of the statements made by Lambert officials in the news. They seem to be made to the effect that ... this airport was made strong enough to withstand tornadoes, which saved us ... and also that people listened to warnings, which saved lives. However, this seems to be contradictory to video showing people right up against glass outer walls as the tornado approached, only ducking for cover as the tornado was actually damaging the structure.

I guess I'm not understanding why people had not been guided to safe areas much sooner, being that they had quite a lengthy lead time on the warning before the tornado hit, and I would imagine that airport staff had access to high quality weather products of their own.

Maybe I'm missing something and someone can point it out to me, if I am. It feels like officials are patting themselves on the back for this one and crediting themselves for no fatalities, when the simple fact is they were just downright fortunate this time.

 

[John Farley]

Just going from local news reports here. As I understand it, multiple announcements regarding the tornado threat were made, but may not have reached all parts of the airport. In portions of the airport, people were moved to safe areas by airport personnel, but again from what I hear this did not happen in every part of the airport. You will notice that in some of the videos, like the widely-shown one from Concourse C, there were not many people in the picture when the tornado hit, which supports the notion that people were evacuated from these areas. The news on Channel 5 tonight quoted the airport director as saying that an analysis is being done to determine what was done right and what could be done better, and acknowledging that while announcements reached people in many parts of the airport, they likely were not heard everywhere in the airport.

 

[Karen St John]

In at least one clip I viewed, people were watching an intense light show from the windows of the terminal. Common sense would dictate removing ones' self from near those windows, even sans the airport administration's admonitions.

 

[Jerry Prsha]

I apologize if there are other posts to this effect. I'm almost never in here except to check a forecast or report thread these days. Delete if necessary.

I've had some questions about some of the statements made by Lambert officials in the news. They seem to be made to the effect that ... this airport was made strong enough to withstand tornadoes, which saved us ... and also that people listened to warnings, which saved lives. However, this seems to be contradictory to video showing people right up against glass outer walls as the tornado approached, only ducking for cover as the tornado was actually damaging the structure.

I guess I'm not understanding why people had not been guided to safe areas much sooner, being that they had quite a lengthy lead time on the warning before the tornado hit, and I would imagine that airport staff had access to high quality weather products of their own.

Maybe I'm missing something and someone can point it out to me, if I am. It feels like officials are patting themselves on the back for this one and crediting themselves for no fatalities, when the simple fact is they were just downright fortunate this time.

The videos that I watched showed a lot of people "herding" through the hallways before the wind really "kicked on." Whether it was by way of Airport personnel or because of fear, I don't think the video shows. But it was obvious that some per-thought to the outcome was in place and prevented more injuries.

I did see a video where people were saying in their respective gate, right by the large plate glass windows while the wind increased but there was certainly a point when everyone moved at the same time away and seemed to pick up their belongings en mass. That appeared to me as they were told to move away from the glass.

 

[Karenlynch]

I live outside of St. Louis. I read this forum although I am new and I was watching the news intently that night. Alls we heard on the news was, "a tornado has been spotted at Lambert Airport". It was dark when it hit. Since we have so many thunderstorm and tornado warnings here, I doubt if anybody takes them seriously unless a tornado has been spotted. There was no warning.

 

[rdale]

That appeared to me as they were told to move away from the glass.

It could also be that people saw the tornado and the damage taking place outside and moved away from the glass too...

There was no warning.

Are you sure there was no warning? I thought they were issued well in advance?

 

[Jesse Risley]

Since we have so many thunderstorm and tornado warnings here, I doubt if anybody takes them seriously unless a tornado has been spotted. There was no warning.

There was certainly plenty of advanced warning from the NWS. I don't know what kind of advanced notice the airport itself passed along to staff and patrons, but the first NWS warning issued for the area around 7:30 PM included the airport itself: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/vtec/#2011-O-NEW-KLSX-TO-W-0046

* TORNADO WARNING FOR... CENTRAL ST. CHARLES COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL MISSOURI... NORTHWESTERN ST. LOUIS COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL MISSOURI... * UNTIL 815 PM CDT * AT 733 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING A CONFIRMED DAMAGING TORNADO NEAR DARDENNE PRAIRIE. DOPPLER RADAR SHOWED THIS TORNADO MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. CONSIDERABLE STRUCTURAL DAMAGE HAS BEEN REPORTED IN NEW MELLE.

A new warning, issued at 755 PM, included the airport and areas to the ENE towards the river: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/vtec/#2011-O-NEW-KLSX-TO-W-0049

This second (later) warning was 20 minutes prior to the airport tower reporting a tornado on the ground at 814 PM.

 

[Amanda Farnham]

Even TWC was following this storm well before it hit the St. Louis area. Whether the airport decided to pass along what information they had or not remains to be seen. I'm not sure I understand how the announcement was not broadcast in certain areas of the terminal... shouldn't they have a central broadcasting system in case of emergencies?

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I guess the questions I have revolve around timing. How long before the tornado hit were people advised to take cover. From the main video I've seen, it appears that only after the imminent threat became apparent did staff get people's attention away from the windows, when really the threat should have been apparent when the warning was issued by authorities much sooner.

There were even planes on the tarmac with passengers in them that were rocked by the wind as the tornado passed over, which I take to mean that airport operations were in full gear at the time, even though many flights had been circling for some time waiting for the storm to pass.

It's also a very happy coincidence that the tornado was EF2 at the time it passed over the terminal. Had it been stronger, the damage to the terminal would have been much more severe. This is what concerns me about the statement made by the airport director yesterday, as she commented that the terminal was built to withstand high wind. Maybe I'm mistaken in my perception of the timing of events ... and it's just the way things have come across in the media. But hopefully this is a good learning lesson in the future to cut airport operations and get people to safe locations quickly.

 

[Mike Moore]

I haven't read the statements, maybe you could post a link to them. I agree that the security camera footage shows the preparedness of the people in the actual terminal building... I don't think that's debatable. However, what we don't know is the announcements that were made. Perhaps the majority of people heeded a warning and only some remained behind? Without all of the facts its a guessing game.

As far as the "officials" go if you are a public information officer you're going to report things in the best light for the city, agency, etc. You highlight the positive and pass over the negatives. I'm sure the construction of the building could have indeed saved lives.

Could they have done things differently? Maybe; It's hard to say without having actually been in that situation.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

From CNN:

At the airport, Hamm-Niebruegge said the facility's design -- and the way people responded to warnings -- played a key role.

"It is a historic building, and it's built very, very well. I think that had a part to do with it, but we also had very early warnings," she said.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/26/st.louis.airport/index.html?hpt=T1

Video I've referenced above ... these people are running for cover as the tornado is hitting ... it likely would have been too late for them had this been EF4 at the time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km7Q5aNk90k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgbYdnL6e8Q

I'm thankful things turned out as they did. Just hope the luck holds out the next time around and that the airport realizes it was not because of anything special that they had done to save lives.

 

[Jesse Risley]

It's entirely possible that, as always, some of this was the fault of people themselves for not taking the warnings seriously until danger is imminent. We've all discussed in previous threads how the public tends to get desensitized to SVR weather warnings because they just erroneously assume that it was a false alarm if no immediate damage occurs in the vicinity of a warned area.

In the case of a large scale venue like an airport, I doubt the staff had the time or the desire to deliberately force anyone to heed the warnings and seek shelter. If that's the case, then some of this could be largely a personal choice on the part of some patrons to just assume it was another warning that would pass without incident.

 

[Todd Renshaw]

I've looked for that initial cell phone footage that we've all seen where we're seeing the camera look up into the windows and the storm is swirling outside. (Of course, I can't find a link to that footage at the moment.) I wanted to see if it was edited so that the "running from the window" part has a clear edit before the "roof caving in" part. I suspect that these two events could have happened minutes apart.

As for the security cam footage, looks to me like most everyone has already found shelter prior to what we're seeing. Things look fairly deserted with the exception of the TSA and the overweight (waddling) family that looks like they can't move fast enough.

 

[Todd Renshaw]

I found a video taken from concourse C. (Not the one I was looking for.) I can't hear everything clearly, but it doesn't sound like security asked anyone to shelter ahead of time. (Or at least not early enough to make much difference.)

Watch video >

 

[Mike Moore]

We've all discussed in previous threads how the public tends to get desensitized to SVR weather warnings because they just erroneously assume that it was a false alarm if no immediate damage occurs in the vicinity of a warned area.

So true. Also consider that a lot of people who are traveling are in sort of another world anyway. If I had a nickel for every person I stood behind in security who acts surprised when they have to take off their shoes, or remove the metal chains around their neck. It's not like metal detectors are a new thing.

Now close your eyes and put yourself in an airport terminal... announcements over the PA are in no short supply.

*The white zone is for loading and unloading only* (insert Airport movie joke here)
*The transportation security administration has... blah blah blah*
*Delta Flight 463 non stop to Phoenix now boarding gate C11*
*This is a weather emergency... please seek shelter away from windows now*
*Frontier airlines is paging passenger John Smith to gate A23*

Even if you happen to be paying attention and happen to catch the alert, where would you go? Now assuming we're all "weather aware" we would head to an interior room like a bathroom, but lots of folks freeze up in dangerous situations... maybe they were the ones sprinting for cover at the last minute? Who knows.

I think it's unfair to say they didn't do anything special to save lives when we have no way to know what they did or didn't do. We're trying to make that judgement based on some security camera footage and interviews of airport officials. For all we know the airport staff rushed people in from standing out front while waiting to be picked up. I mean the airport is a large complex with many areas and many employees. I think it's unfair to pass judgement on everyone at the airport based on what we've seen online.