For me, when they started reporting "high winds" and then showed a shuttle bus tossed up onto a building roof I knew it was a tornado - high winds and microbursts might overturn a vehicle, it takes a twister to levitate it 2-3 stories and put it on a roof like that. There were winds clocked at over 160 kph in just the storm itself, the tornado winds, of course, would have been even stronger.
Three jets, complete with passengers, were reportedly lifted off the ground, slammed with debris, and then dropped again. No injuries reported, but all three jets will have to undergo inspection for damage.
The airport is closed for awhile - they have to get structural engineers in to assess damage to the buildings as well as cleaning up and replacing all those windows.
A few more images:
Of course, it wasn't just the airport - there are houses and businesses flattened nearby as well. Emergency personnel are doing a house to house search this morning in the area to see if anyone is injured/trapped/needs help.
YouTube video showing some of the damage. Most of the debris appears to be the roof, which is now in pieces on the ground, and lots of window glass.
And another, with some daylight views:
And one from inside the terminal, showing the storm picking up and the evacuation down to baggage claim.
Of course, this doesn't let you experience the ear-popping drop in air pressure you get when a tornado hits. Clearly, injuries could have been much worse if there wasn't a plan for this sort of thing.
For those of you not familiar with tornado safety - you want to get away from windows (reasons should be obvious) and preferably underground, but at least with something solid between you and the storm, including something over your head. In a lot of the midwest, in big public buildings the public toilets are built like bunkers and double as storm shelters.
