Tornado survivors confront many challenges. But surely one of the biggest is trying to catch a good night’s sleep when you’ve spent a week on a cot in an emergency shelter’s open bay with 49 other men, women, kids, and at least two dogs.
So it’s been for Sonja Hemphill, ever since her Central West End apartment house was severely damaged in an EF 3 tornado on May 16.
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As of Friday, Hemphill has been a resident for six nights at the Red Cross Shelter set up at the Refresh Community Church in University City. Continuous noise from other shelter residents has been a big issue, she said.
“It’s been very difficult,” Hemphill said. “There are kids. Dogs barking. They give you ear plugs here, so I put my ear plugs in.”
Troubled by sleep apnea, Hemphill at night turns on her Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine, or CPAP, and tries to nod off. “And that’s all I can do,” she said.
The tornado hit the St. Louis region in mid-afternoon a week ago, leaving a 23-mile path of destruction stretching from Clayton to the O’Fallon Park neighborhood in North St. Louis near the Mississippi River. Five people were killed and at least 4,400 of 5,000 buildings in the twister’s path suffered damage. The cost estimate so far for rebuilding: $1.6 billion.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer on Thursday expressed concern that efforts to slash budgets and fire workers at many federal agencies under orders from President Donald Trump will affect the response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Defunding the areas of the federal government that we so badly need to make our communities function well is a huge, huge problem when it comes to this and a whole host of things that the city relies on,” Spencer said during a press conference Thursday, according to St. Louis Public Radio.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has requested an emergency disaster declaration for the areas hit by tornadoes and severe storms on May 16. If Trump approves the governor’s request, it would authorize the federal government to provide up to $5 million to support emergency protective measures and debris removal.
Spencer noted that several other disaster declarations are still awaiting Trump’s approval, the radio station reported.
“Do I have concerns? Yes,” Spencer told the news media Thursday. “[But] I have confidence that our governor and our local elected, our senators and our congressmen are doing everything possible.”
Over the last week, the Red Cross has set up three emergency shelters, and two of the three—at Refresh Community Church and the 12th and Park Center, at 1410 Tucker Avenue—have reached maximum capacity. The shelter at Friendly Temple Outreach Center, at 6356 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, in Wellston, with 40 beds, still has several available, according to shelter staff.
Arlee Hayes, Jr., 65, sat on a folding chair in Refresh’s parking lot, enjoying a cigarette in the mid-morning sunshine while contemplating his future.
A resident of the same apartment house as Hemphill—the Roosevelt Towne Apartments, 711 Euclid Avenue—Hayes said he had no idea how long he would have to live at the shelter while work crews fix up his apartment complex, which suffered extensive water damage after the damage caused by the tornado.
It helps a lot that many of the shelter’s residents were neighbors at Roosevelt Town. “We all just get along,” Hayes said.
Timothy Gillespie, 61, also acknowledged problems getting decent sleep, but he downplayed its effects. “I’m just grateful that God allowed me to wake up and do it again,” he said.
Gillespie said he expected to stay at the Red Cross shelter for another two weeks, then would likely move into another apartment.
“With the grace of God, I am ready to go,” he said.
