ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – Flights began landing at St. Louis' tornado-battered airport on Saturday night, a spokesman said, after an all-out effort to repair the damage from a storm that also wrecked houses, tossed cars and knocked out power.

A preliminary count showed at least 750 homes were damaged, Governor Jay Nixon told reporters after touring the area by air. Fewer than 100 homes were completely destroyed, he said.

Several injuries were reported from the Friday night storm but no fatalities.

Lambert Airport had to be shut down after the storm hit with winds over 100 mph/160 kph, and airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said an American Airlines jet on the ground was damaged.

At the airport windows were broken, debris scattered, and holes blown in the roof of at least one terminal building, but a thousand workers were deployed on Saturday to put things back in order, and initial projections that it could be Monday at the earliest before the airport reopened were quickly rolled back.

"There have been some planes that have landed," Lambert spokesman Jeff Lea told Reuters late Saturday night, adding that the airport was "expecting up to nine flights by midnight," although there could be some delays.

Earlier Lea had said power had been restored to the full terminal, and that: "We will have 70 percent of our facilities functional tomorrow," when departures were expected to resume.

"We have spent the day boarding up windows and getting the roof holes buttoned up, cleaning up debris. And terminal one had a lot of glass blown out and we are clearing that out."

"It isn't going to be a pretty terminal but it will be a functioning terminal," Lea said.

Elsewhere recovery work looked set to take longer.

Near a highway overpass about 10 miles from downtown St. Louis trees had been snapped like toothpicks, metal was twisted in piles, broken glass covered the ground.

Among the wrecked building's was 58-year-old chiropractor Dennis Baker's office, which lost its roof in the storm.

"The wind had whipped around inside with such force that it just tore everything apart," Baker told Reuters, mopping his brow as he took a break from clearing debris.

"We found the roof sitting in our parking lot and we just started in trying to get the important stuff out," Baker said, saying he and his wife worked from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. using the light from a small flashlight.

"We saved the computers and got some tarp up," he said.

Other people swarmed around the wreckage, perhaps two dozen neighbors and relatives chipping in to help save Baker's small business, about one mile from Lambert Airport.

Governor Nixon declared a state of emergency and released state funds to help in the cleanup.

He also spoke to President Barack Obama, who pledged his full support and assistance with recovery efforts, according to a statement from the governor's office.

HUNDREDS DISPLACED

Red Cross readiness and response director Mary Anderson said that while hundreds of people have been displaced: "These are larger houses and I imagine these are families who have somewhere to go, friends, relatives, hotels."

Several people were injured by flying glass on Friday night when the main terminal was hit at the airport, located in the city limits about 5 miles northwest of downtown.

Among airlines affected by the airport shutdown were Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and AMR Corp's American.

Aside from the injuries at the airport, there were no other reports of people being hurt despite widespread destruction in a heavily populated area about three-quarters of a mile west of the airport.

"Its just amazing that an F-4 tornado could come through a highly populated area with no fatalities. People got a 34-minute warning and that warning saved countless lives," Nixon said.

Power lines were reported down across St. Louis County, according to utility Ameren Missouri.

Some 26,000 were till without power on Saturday afternoon, down from 47,000 at the height of the storm, according to the company.

Over the years storms and tornadoes have claimed hundreds of lives in the St. Louis region, one of the most active urban areas for tornadoes in the United States.

The worst tornado in St. Louis history killed 137 people and left 550 injured in 1927 and was the second costliest in U.S. history, according to the St. Louis Public Library.

During a storm in 1973, an Ozark Airlines flight crashed into the University of Missouri-St. Louis while trying to land at Lambert Airport during a severe storm, killing 38 people.

(Additional reporting by Eric Johnson; Editing by Jerry Norton)

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (Reuters) – Severe thunderstorms were expected in a band from Texas through to Ohio on Saturday with isolated tornado warnings as residents recoiled from a storm that swept the west side of St. Louis, forecasters said.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for parts of southern Illinois to northern Kentucky and southwest Ohio amid severe thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon.

The storms have produced significant damage to trees and power lines and are capable of producing winds of more than 80 miles per hour, the weather service said.

Areas of Texas, including Dallas, were on watch for severe thunderstorms, the weather service said.

A storm roared through the St. Louis area on Friday night, forcing the closure of its tornado-battered airport at least until Sunday, destroying dozens of homes, tossing cars and trucks and knocking out power to thousands of residents.

St. Louis hopes to bring the airport to 70 percent of capacity on Sunday and back to normal flights by midweek.

Conditions were brewing for severe weather from central Texas to the far-southern reaches of Missouri south of St. Louis late Saturday afternoon and into the evening, AccuWeather.com said.

"A stalled front draped across the lower Midwest and central and southern Plains will generate severe storms again on Saturday and Sunday," weather.com said.

"Large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes are all possible with this disturbance."

The weather service forecast slight risk for severe thunderstorms Saturday from the boot-heel of Missouri and parts of Mississippi, Arkansas and western Tennessee, with much better chances for severe weather Monday through Wednesday.

In northwest Tennessee, a severe thunderstorm was producing quarter-sized hail and high winds, the weather service said.

"Our next big one is going to be Tuesday and Wednesday," said Danny Gant, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Memphis, Tennessee. "Wednesday looks to be the worst of the two. Looks like all threats are possible."

Two strong weather systems could bring several inches of rain, damaging winds, very large hail and tornadoes early next week in the region, the weather service said.

The National Weather Service also saw a slight risk for severe thunderstorms in eastern West Virginia and northern and central Virginia on Saturday.

"A few storms will be capable of producing large hail and damaging wind gusts," the National Weather Service said.

(Reporting by Bruce Olson, Tim Ghianni and David Bailey; Editing by Jerry Norton)

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – The head of the company that owns the Idaho silver mine where a worker has been trapped underground for eight days said he still hopes rescuers will bring the miner safely home to his family.

"We have not given up hope," Phil Baker, the president and chief executive officer of Hecla Mining Co., said in a video message posted on the company's website on Saturday.

"There are many examples of miracles where people have managed to survive for extended periods of time under very difficult conditions."

The message came as crews neared the last -- and most dangerous -- stretch of blasting through solid rock as they worked to reach the site more than a mile below the surface where Larry Marek, 53, was trapped by a cave-in April 15 at the Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan.

No contact has been made with Marek, whose condition is unknown.

Cameras snaked through bore holes into an open area where Marek might have found refuge during the collapse have failed to capture any sign of a worker who Baker said was a resilient man and one of the company's best miners.

Fresh air and water have been pumped into the opening for several days.

Crews have advanced 184 feet through a 220-foot tunnel to the accident site in a drill-and-blast operation that began on Monday.

The company reported a setback on Saturday, when a long-distance probe near the cave-in detected rubble and sand instead of additional open area, according to a news release.

Rescuers drawing nearer to the unstable area where Marek was tapping a vein of silver must take additional precautions to ensure their safety and avoid injury to Marek.

Their plan, expected to slow the advance, calls for reinforcing the tunnel with metal frames, timbers and steel supports.

Marek, a 30-year veteran of the mining industry and 12-year employee of Hecla, comes from a family whose connection to mining goes back three generations, Baker said.

He said mines from across the globe have offered their expertise and resources for the search, which has placed on hold any inquiry into the cause of accident.

The eight-day, 24-hour rescue effort -- which Baker said was "almost superhuman" -- has galvanized the 850 residents of Mullan, where the Lucky Friday is the economic mainstay.

Mullan is one of seven towns in an historic mining district in Idaho known as the Silver Valley, which runs along the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene River near the state's border with Montana.

The Lucky Friday is one of three active silver mines in the United States owned by Hecla, which was founded in the Silver Valley and is based in Coeur d'Alene.

(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Jerry Norton)