A handful of planes are scheduled to land at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Saturday night after a powerful tornado swept through the area, effectively shutting it down for the day. St. Louis-bound flights had to be diverted to neighboring airports for the day and some passengers were taken to the city by bus.

The tornado, which swept through nine western Missouri communities on Friday night, left behind what one meteorologist with the National Weather Service called "an incredible trail of devastation." St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said the tornado was the worst to hit the area since 1967. Incredibly, no deaths or life threatening injuries have been reported.

According to CNN:

Gov. Jay Nixon estimated that, throughout the region, the tornado caused damage to 750 homes -- fewer than 100 of which remained uninhabitable. Yet no one lost his or her life.

"It is absolutely amazing that an EF4 tornado can come through an airport and a number of municipalities that are highly populated, at a time when people weren't at work, and have no fatalities," Nixon said. "We're talking property, we're not talking about loss of life because of this. That is nothing short of astounding."

The tornado left a wave of destruction at the airport, tearing the roof off a main terminal, shattering windows and tossing vehicles. It also violently shook aircraft filled with passengers.

Jeff Lea, an airport spokesman, described the scene when the twister tore through the area Friday night. "The wind tunneled through the concourse, blowing debris through the corridor as passengers took cover," he said.

CBS News reported:

Surveillance video shows the time of impact with travelers and airport employees racing for cover to avoid flying debris.

"We get to the terminal and lights were out, glass everywhere, blood everywhere from people had been cut," said one witness, Ross Taylor.

Lea said that five people suffering from minor injuries were taken to the hospital, while dozens of others were treated at the airport.

According to preliminary estimates, the tornado was packing wind speeds between 111 and 165 miles per hour when it slammed into the airport. In other parts of Missouri, winds were estimated to have reached up to 200 miles per hour.

Despite the fact that 50 percent of the windows were blown out in Concourse C--where American Airlines, Frontier, AirTran and Cape Air are all located--the plan is to have the airport running at 70 percent capacity on Sunday morning.

Crews were working through the day to clean up and repair as much damage as they could. "We've seen now a lot of improvement, they're boarding up the windows of course, they're cleaning it up, we're trying to get it repaired," Slay told reporters at a press conference.

However, Airport Director Ron Hamm-Niebruegge said it could take a "couple of months" to fully repair the damage. He said that some carriers might have to use other airport locations during that time.

Lambert St. Louis is the country's 30th busiest airport.

Watch video from Mayor Slay's press conference below: