Mayor Cara Spencer gave a press conference yesterday afternoon outside a firehouse in Fountain Park, with destruction from last week’s tornado still apparent on the other side of Enright Avenue. She fought back tears recounting the hardship she has seen over the past several days in the areas hardest hit by the tornado.
“There aren’t words. Whole entire sides, fronts, backs, tops of homes are missing. People have wrapped their personal belongings in Saran wrap,” she said. “It is unbelievable what people are going through now.”
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Spencer added that she knew the city was “simultaneously doing a Herculean effort and not doing nearly enough. It’s not possible to address all the needs.”
Her updates largely concerned the timeline of when more outside help will come to the city, as well as how the city will continue to respond in its own capacity.
Regarding the latter, Spencer said that the city had identified $10–20 million in local funds that could be redirected to areas affected by the tornado. Some of that is ARPA money that has already been obligated, but could “pivot” to tornado recovery.
Spencer said that FEMA, the State Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Small Business Administration will be in the city for three days doing “preliminary damage assessment,” a key precursor to securing a national disaster declaration. As of Tuesday, she said, the National Guard had a small presence “on site” as part of the process of getting a deployment to assist in recovery efforts. “In order for the National Guard to come here, we have to supply a very specific ask, and that requires a comprehensive assessment of the need,” she said. “We are in the process of conducting that on site with the National Guard.”
While the city waits for state or federal help, countless volunteers have stepped into the breech. One of the earliest and largest efforts has been the one organized by Action St. Louis, which set up at the O’Fallon YMCA the morning after the storm and continues to serve as a key hub for relief.
On Tuesday morning the sidewalk and curb just outside the facility buzzed, as hundreds of volunteers efficiently unloaded donations, sorted and packaged aid and distributed it to those who needed it. In a nearby parking lot, those seeking to help with clearing debris received a safety briefing before being split into groups of 10–15 and heading into North City to remove downed branches, asphalt shingles and other dangerous debris strewn in the streets. Beverly Morris traveled in from Florissant and says as a breast cancer survivor she was inspired to help however she could. In the course of a few hours, roughly two dozen people cleared away one full block of St. Ferdinand Avenue.
Police Chief Robert Tracy said that a curfew will remain in effect for now in the affected areas of North City, which he said were remaining peaceful. A man taking advantage of the circumstances to steal copper wire has been arrested. Tracy says there have only been two violations of the 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, with two teens being picked up in Tuesday’s early hours.
Notably absent at the presser on Tuesday was City Emergency Management Administration commissioner Sarah Russell, who has been the focus of numerous reporters’ questions after the tornado siren’s failure to sound on Friday.
“The concerns about the sirens are real. They are valid. They are shared by me,” said Spencer, who put at least a portion of the blame for the failure on an ambiguous protocol put into place in 2021. She did not respond to a question about whether Russell had misled the public in the past few days about why the sirens didn’t sound, saying she wanted to understand what Russell had said before commenting.
Later Tuesday, Russell was placed on leave pending an external investigation, according to a press release issued by the city last night.
“After learning of the failure of the sirens to be activated, Mayor Spencer immediately ordered an internal investigation,” the release said. “The initial focus was to correct the immediate issue, which Mayor Spencer did by changing the siren activation protocol to clearly place the responsibility of activating the sirens with the Fire Department. However, as the investigation continued, it became increasingly clear that there was not just one serious issue, but multiple. The mayor has directed her staff to initiate an external investigation to fully explore this and any other potential issues.”
“CEMA exists, in large part, to alert the public to dangers caused by severe weather, and the office failed to do that in the most horrific and deadly storm our City has seen in my lifetime.” Spencer said, according to the release. “Commissioner Russell has served our City for years and is a person of good will, but I cannot move on from this without providing accountability and ensuring that our emergency management is in trusted hands.”
