Repairs are underway to Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport’s signature copper-topped dome after a severe storm on Tuesday peeled off about a third of the material.
About a half dozen buckets inside the passenger terminal were collecting rainwater which had seeped in after the dome was damaged by what airport officials called “a micro-burst” that caused high winds.
Blake Poole, the airport’s vice president of air service and economic development, said he was sitting at Lovell Field’s offices watching the storm when he noticed parts of the roof on the dome coming off.
“It was really raining hard. Then we started seeing debris,” he said, adding that airport officials could tell it had come from the dome because of the shiny copper color.
About a third of the copper covering on the dome at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport was torn off by severe rain and winds Tuesday. That caused water to leak into the passenger terminal. / Staff photo by Mike PareNo other damage was reported at the airport from the 2 p.m. storm, but officials scrambled to find buckets to collect rainwater dripping from the roof at the entrance of the terminal.