Wind gusts at the torpedo building sent debris flying Friday afternoon. /Courtesy: Peggy McLaughlin

A windstorm that lasted through the weekend did damage all over town in Unalaska, including to buildings at the airport, vehicles and road signs.

Several cars were damaged Friday afternoon as strong gusts of wind ripped debris off the state-owned, WWII-era torpedo building next to the long-term airport parking lot.

Ports director Peggy McLaughlin says five cars in the lot were struck by flying scraps of wood.

"It’s very fortunate that there were not people standing there ... when that went," she says. "Because there were major, probably eight- to 10-foot pieces of lumber that were blown clear across the parking lot. Like, four-by-sixes."

The Department of Public Safety says there were wind gusts between 75 and 85 miles per hour on Friday.

Over the weekend, the city contacted locals who could move remaining cars from the lot. There are four cars still parked there. McLaughlin says the lot will remain closed until the state can “secure” the building.

"That whole area is just so busy with people, particularly at this time of year," she says. "It’s just crazy to think about people standing in and around that area, and what could be happening."

McLaughlin says it’s not clear yet what will happen to the torpedo building -- whether it’ll be torn down, or if the state will take other action. A Department of Transportation representative is traveling to Unalaska this week to start working on the issue.

In the meantime, part of the airport’s short-term parking lot will become long-term parking.

The airport took another hit during the weekend’s storm -- five doors and part of the roof on a storage hangar were ripped off. Airport manager Dale Ruckman had no estimate on the cost of the damage or when they’ll be able to fix it.

The hangar housed equipment, including the state emergency towing system. Peggy McLaughlin says they’ve moved it into storage with the city’s ETS. She says it’s not an ideal location in case they need to deploy the ETS quickly via helicopter, but it’s a safer place for now.

Elsewhere in town, police Sgt. Bill Simms says road signs and utility boxes were knocked over and blown into roadways.

"It was humming pretty good, that’s for sure," he says. "I can tell you personally from being out in the road, it was impressive to try to cross the bridge and be pushed aside by the winds."

Simms says a battery box from the tsunami siren pole on Standard Oil Hill was blown apart on Saturday. Public Safety was able to fix it soon thereafter, and the siren is still operational.

Simms also says big wave swells sent silt and rocks washing across the S curves.

"That fill that they did this past summer along S curves to create that bike path was basically washed onto the road," he says. "So the city had to go out there a couple times and sweep the road off, but that was quite impressive as well."

Simms says the highest wind gust they recorded this weekend clocked in around 113 to 114 miles per hour. That was at the APL crane.

The gust that knocked over the crane in 2009 was reported to be around 170 miles per hour.