LANSING | Officials with the Lansing Municipal Airport met with engineers this week to figure out what actions, if any, can be taken to prevent the airport from suffering from flooding that afflicted the south suburbs last month.

When heavy rains hit the Calumet region, resulting in much of the area being declared a federal disaster area, the airport saw 4 inches of water accumulate on runway 27-9.

That water shorted out the lights along the runway that help guide airplane pilots when they land. The lights were down for two days.

Airport Manager John DeLaurentiis said the issue is complicated by the fact that the location of the lights cannot be altered, and the runway is near the portion of airport property used for water flow.

"There's no other place to put the lights, and there really wasn't much that could have been done to prevent this from happening," DeLaurentiis said, noting that engineers spent the day Tuesday reviewing the airport design for handling floodwater.

Aside from the lights on the one runway, DeLaurentiis said the airport sustained no additional damage or problems from the heavy rains on Sept. 13-15.

"We are fortunate that the lights going out is all the damage we incurred," he said.

Lansing village Trustee Norm Abbott used a Village Board meeting Tuesday to note one other complaint he had heard from the time of the flooding.

He noted Lansing residents who live near the airport called him to complain about noise from helicopters and small aircraft that flew over the area to try to get an aerial view of Lansing and Munster when the flood activity was at its peak.

But since none of those aircraft took off from, or landed at, Lansing Municipal Airport, there was nothing that village officials could do.

"There were complaints about the noise, but it wasn't our fault," Abbott said.