Assessing the damage

The airport authority won’t know the full extent of the damages caused by last week’s storm for another few days.

Clean up crews continued to clear away foam insulation and glass at the Thunder Bay International Airport a week after a severe windstorm struck the area. The winds were so strong that it ripped a portion of the airport’s roof off, which flew across the parking lot and damaged several vehicles.

No one was hurt during the incident.

Most of the cars had been removed from the parking lot and the owners have since been advised to speak with their insurance companies.

While there have been some temporary repairs to the roof, Airport Authority president and CEO Scott McFadden said the main work hasn’t started.

He said they are in the middle of bidding out the project to contractors and wouldn’t know how much the damages will cost until they have finished that process.

“There is some urgency to get things going,” McFadden said. “Ultimately, we won’t know the cost until we have the bids for the project.

“I’m hoping by the end of this week we`ll be done with the ‘let’s have a look’ and moved onto ‘let’s get this fixed’.”

He said the membrane that still remains and lies underneath the roof would do to keep out the rain until they have started repairs.

According to McFadden, an 80-foot section of roof was torn loose in the storm, which saw winds hit 115-kilometres an hour.

McFadden said because of the once-in-a-lifetime nature of the suspected micro burst and the path it took, it’s unlikely they’ll make design changes, although he wouldn’t rule them out.