Tornado Destruction: St. Louis Residents Clean Up After Storm

April 25, 2011— -- Over the last 24 hours, there have been 200 reports of severe weather across the country. Late this afternoon, tornadoes were forming over the Dallas area. In the St. Louis area, people are recovering in the wake of a monster tornado - the worst in nearly a half century - that damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and ripped through the major airport over the weekend. So far, 292 tornadoes have touched down this April, which have killed 39 people.

Ominous skies over Dallas prompted authorities to run for cover just before a tornado touched down near the town of Cleburne, Tex. The same system that brought those twisters is also bringing torrential rain, prompting flood warnings in 17 states.

In Missouri, new damage totals show some 2,700 buildings around St. Louis damaged, and 100 homes destroyed including Marcy Baker's house.

She was spending Easter weekend in Dallas with her family when she got a call that her house had been hit. She drove home 12 hours to find her house destroyed.

"I have a 15-month-old, I'm pregnant. It's devastating," Baker said.

At a nearby Catholic church, the 40-foot steeple toppled during the tornado that struck in the middle of Good Friday services.

Sally Ward was at church on Friday watching the movie "The Passion of the Christ," when she got a simple text message: "tornado...run." She told ABC News, "A text message and a phone call from my daughter saved my life. And we didn't have 30 seconds to get to [the] basement before that tornado hit."

Power was knocked out to as many as 47,000 customers after the tornado. On Sunday, some 26,000 customers remained without power and officials said many could remain in the dark until Monday. No one was killed and a handful of injuries were reported.

At Lambert Airport, surveillance video captured the exact moment a 135 mile an hour tornado struck, ripping off the roof and sending metal flying. Officials are fixing hundreds of panes of broken glass. It could take months and millions of dollars to fully complete the clean up.

Flights were getting back to normal after the airport reopened Saturday.

Airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge says the continuing repairs to the airport shouldn't impact travelers.

"The majority of the windows are boarded up, still doing just a little bit of work on that but the airport itself is structurally sound," she said.

Yet despite all this, victims are counting their blessings. There were no reported deaths as a result of the tornado.

"It's a miracle out of all the devastation. There were absolutely no fatalities, and very few injuries," said Terry Hayes.

ABC News' Jacob Beckman, Dean Schabner, Leezel Tanglao and Michael Murray contributed to this report.