Jay Mitchell, a volunteer with Friends of the Astoria Column, works to clear the access road to the Astoria Column Sunday.

It looked like a calamity atop Coxcomb Hill Saturday morning as gale-force winds ripped the white cover off the Astoria Column, exposing the scaffolding built for the landmark’s ongoing restoration.

But, to the restoration team, the sight meant that everything was going according to plan.

In fact, Project Director Marie Laibinis and Safway Services Inc., the scaffolding company, knew the storm was coming — and prepared for it.

On Friday, Laibinis and her crew secured the scaffolding level by level, adding additional ties to the top area and removing notebooks, paint buckets and other materials that could fly away.

Laibinis arrived at the Column at around 6 a.m. Saturday and took wind-velocity measurements, which registered only 20 mph at that point. She summoned her on-call crew, who proceeded to cut the cover along the seams to relieve the pressure on the scaffolding — and to let the cover, a polyethylene debris netting, take flight if necessary.

“It can’t withstand more than 50 mph,” Laibinis said Sunday, “and yesterday, that’s what we got.”

So, when the cover first started flapping in the breeze like a sail, then started blowing away in pieces as the windstorm crescendoed, it meant the restoration team had done the right thing.

“You cut it and let it go,” she said. “That’s the whole emergency plan.”

By the time the storm ended, the cover was gone.

The scaffolding is stable but will be tested and adjusted over the next several days. “Right now, they’re still working on making the service scaffolding secure,” said Sheri Mitchell, executive director of the Friends of the Astoria Column.

For safety reasons, Astor Park and the Astoria Column Gift Shop remained closed to vehicles and pedestrians Monday morning and until further notice. The Astoria Parks & Recreation Department closed the park grounds during the weekend so debris and downed trees can be cleared from Coxcomb Drive.

Dedicated in 1926, the 125-foot Astoria Column has been closed since June for the $1 million restoration project. Even after the storm, the Column is still on track to be finished by late September, weather permitting, Laibinis said. The Column is scheduled to reopen Oct. 24.

Fortunately, the storm didn’t undo any of the restoration work, including the repainting of the murals that spiral up the structure, she said. “We were very fortunate in the fact that 90 percent of the mural is finished,” she said.

As the restoration project nears completion, the Column won’t be covered except at the top for minor repairs and at the bottom to discourage visitors from approaching the base, which is surrounded by a fence.

A similar storm occurred during the Column’s 1995 restoration, Laibinis said. In that instance, the plastic cover partially tore off and twisted the scaffolding.

“(These are) weather-dependent projects,” she said.