The bulk of early morning passengers at Eppley Airfield were stranded Sunday after baseball-size hail fell on the airport, damaging commercial and private airplanes. 

The sudden burst of hail also caused significant damage to hundreds of cars at the airport and in the part of Council Bluffs that is directly south of the airport. 
 

A car parked at South First Street and Platner Street in Council Bluffs shows signs of hail damage from the morning storm.

At Eppley, 13 commercial flights were canceled or delayed by the hailstorm. An estimated 100 flights depart from the airport daily. The total number of passengers affected by the delays was not available. 

Most of the airplanes had damage to their control surfaces - primarily to the planes' flaps. One United Airlines plane had damage to its engine covering, said Brad Livingston, director of operations at the airfield. 

The airport has no place to shelter commercial planes during storms. 

The flights were headed to cities including Minneapolis, Phoenix, Houston, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis. 

Craig Clark, operations supervisor, said the grounding was largely precautionary. 

"Obviously we were concerned," he said, "or the planes would not have been grounded." 

Carol Silvestri was one passenger stuck in line at the Northwest Airlines counter. She came to Omaha from Connecticut for her son's graduation from Creighton University. 
 

	Cars in the long-term parking lot at Eppley Airfield sit without windows after Sunday's hailstorm.

"I'm never coming back," she said. 

Her son, Jay Tiernan, joked that at least they were spending quality time together on Mother's Day. 

"This is not quality time," Silvestri retorted. "This is just time." 

Hundreds of cars and trucks parked at the airport had cracked windshields and shattered back windows. 

Livingston said parking-lot security was increased to prevent theft. 

The Plexiglas canopy at the entrance of the airport was cracked. Private planes also were damaged. 

Livingston said the storm came too fast for smaller planes to be driven to hangars. 
 

Continental Airlines repair crew members inspect hail damage to the exterior of one jet.

The National Weather Service said thunderstorm warnings were issued at 5:15 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. CDT. The second warned that large hail was likely. 

The storm hit the Omaha area between 5:50 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. and moved quickly, said lead forecaster John Pollack. 

Much of the metropolitan area received hail, but not the damaging hail that hit Eppley and Council Bluffs. Hail apparently fell in the area generally east of 95th Street and on the northern part of town. In some areas of north-central Omaha, the hail stripped leaves off of trees. 

About two hours after the storm, a weather spotter at Eppley gathered hail stones that remained almost 3 inches in diameter. 

The weather service reported that the spotter said the hail was the size of baseballs when it fell. The hail hit for about five minutes. 

The storm is one of a number this spring that have dropped hail on the area. An April 10 storm caused the worst damage in more than a decade. Hail also was reported April 30. Dodge and Washington Counties, just north of the metro area, saw hail Wednesday. 

Pollack said the number of hail storms this year is an anomaly. "Omaha has been unusually unlucky this year." 

In the Bluffs, cars with shattered back windows and cracked windshields were a common sight Sunday. "The eastern part of the city was hammered," said Police Sgt. Scott Milner. 

The windshields of 10 Council Bluffs police cruisers and a number of unmarked police cars were cracked. 

"There was just no warning," Milner said. "They were patrolling around and then boom." 

At the airport, Clark, with the operations department, said it was the first time he had seen a storm of this magnitude in his 13 years there. 

In April, hail damage at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St. Louis canceled at least 34 flights. 

The airlines were doing what they could at Eppley, Clark said, but probably would "not get caught up until tomorrow." 

Three DC-9 airplanes for Northwest Airlines were among those damaged, said Doug Killian, director of international communications. 

Northwest flew in mechanics and inspectors from Minneapolis to examine and repair the planes, he said. 

Northwest was hoping to get the planes repaired Sunday afternoon so it could fly the passengers out. If that wasn't possible, then passengers would be shifted to the next available flights, he said. 

If the planes can't be repaired in Omaha, they'll be flown, empty, to Minneapolis for repairs. 

"It's not uncommon," Killian said, "but fortunately, it doesn't happen very often." 

Randall and Rebekah Basinger did not mind the delay. They were in Omaha from Pennsylvania for their niece's wedding. 

Sitting on a bench outside the airport, the couple said they decided to stay an extra day with family after being told the next flight would be available late Sunday night - about 12 hours after their 10:55 a.m. scheduled flight. 

"We're probably the only happy people you'll find," Rebekah Basinger said. "We feel like it's a snow day."