ATLANTA TORNADO: Repairs to be slow, expensive; Windows downtown must be customized, and installers are scarce.

JIM THARPE; Staff

It will take several months and millions of dollars to replace the glass in Atlanta skyscrapers that was shattered by Friday's tornado. And that's if contractors can find enough specialists to get the job done.

The winds knocked out hundreds of huge windows in iconic downtown buildings, from the cylindrical, 72-story Westin Peachtree hotel to the angular, granite-skinned Georgia-Pacific building.

Officials were still trying to determine the extent of the damage Monday even as crews continued clearing debris from streets --- many of them still blocked off --- and tourists snapped photos.

"I don't know of any glass in this town that got blown out that will not have to be a factory order," said Johnny Brooks, president of Atlanta's Sunbelt Glass. "It will be in the millions."

State officials have not come up with an exact number of high-rise windows shattered by the storm. Plywood sheets covered dozens of windows in the Georgia-Pacific building Monday, and there were even more windows missing in the nearby Equitable building.

Brooks said one problem that will confront repair efforts is a shortage of manpower in the commercial glass business. His company is working on eight new-construction projects.

"The whole glazing industry is shorthanded because of all the new construction in the Southeast in Atlanta," Brooks said. "It's going to be a challenge for the insurance companies and the contractors to come up with enough people to fix all of this.

"We're almost dreading the calls."

Josh Diehl, business development and project manager with Trainor Glass in Atlanta, agreed that manpower in the commercial glass business will be a problem, considering the scale and complexity of skyscraper repairs.

"We've got a lot of work that we had prior to this happening that makes it difficult for us to be involved in any immediate work like this," Diehl said. "But we have long-term relationships with many of the contractors, and we've told them we are busy but we will help."

Luther Hudson, president of Glass Systems in Lithonia, said it could take eight to 10 weeks to get the glass from the factories, where it will have to be specially produced. It could take several months or so after that, he said, to get it all installed.

Most of the glass can be replaced from inside the tall buildings, he said. But some, like the glass on the outside of the elevator tower at the Westin Peachtree, has to be replaced from the outside --- a much more expensive and cumbersome process.

Ed Walls, general manager of the Westin, said about 170 windows were broken at the downtown hotel.

"You've probably got at least three months to get all this glass replaced," Hudson said.

From viewing the damage, Hudson speculated that most of the skyscraper windows were not sucked out by the storm but were shattered by flying debris. Glass used in skyscrapers is "safety glass," which breaks into pebble-like pieces instead of razor-sharp shards.

"The glass got knocked out because of flying debris, not because the structures failed or the glass failed," he said. "The glass actually held up very well."

Staff writer Leon Stafford contributed to this article.