Volunteers help tornado-hit St. Louis amid wait for federal aid

Yahoo

22-05-2025

To help residents recover from the storm damage, volunteers distribute supplies from the parking lot of the YMCA's O'Fallon Park Rec Complex in North St. Louis (Cara Anthony/KFF News).
ST. LOUIS — Kevin Hines has been living in a house without a roof in the days since a tornado devastated his community. He has seen some of his neighbors sleeping in their cars. A different man has spent untold hours on a bench.
In the aftermath of the May 16 tornado, Hines, 60, has a blue tarp covering his home. Still, rain came in three days later — an expected problem in a house without a roof. But he didn't think wildlife would be an issue. Then a bird landed on his television. He spotted a squirrel on the sofa.
He already has enough to handle. He's not sure when his home will be repaired. A toppled tree destroyed the purple Jeep he bought only months ago. His job told employees not to come into work because the building was damaged.
The tornado cut a 23-mile-long path, touching down in the affluent suburb of Clayton before ripping through the north side of the city of St. Louis then across the Mississippi River through communities in western Illinois. At least five people were killed, 38 more were injured, and about 5,000 structures were damaged, according to St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer. The twister caused more than $1.6 billion in estimated property damage.
While the impact was felt throughout the area, it will take some neighborhoods longer than others to recover. Kayla Reed, a community activist who runs the Action St. Louis nonprofit, which is coordinating help for storm victims, said residents in the predominantly Black area known as North City especially face a long set of challenges in the days ahead.
'A natural disaster met a created one and a systemic one,' Reed said. 'They've sort of been in a long-term storm all of their lives. If you live in this footprint, you know this is where infant mortality is highest. This is where incarceration rates are highest. This is where poverty rates are highest.'
Food and water aid provide some relief, Reed said, but the community needs more than that. 'I can't put into words how long it's going to take to stabilize some of these families and how much trauma they are navigating,' she said.
A possible source of major aid is the federal government, which can unlock resources at the president's discretion. But Missouri is already waiting for President Donald Trump to approve federal assistance for damage left by three sets of storms in March and April that killed 19 people in the state. Trump has denied major disaster requests from West Virginia and Washington this year, and initially denied one for storm and tornado damage in Arkansas before reversing course and approving the request May 13.
Black families here in North St. Louis are worried that their community will not be prioritized.
On May 19, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, requested that Trump issue a federal emergency declaration, which would authorize about $5 million in federal assistance for cleanup efforts. Kehoe also requested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency conduct a preliminary damage assessment, a necessary step to securing a 'major disaster declaration,' which would provide federal resources for homeowners and renters, reimburse local government efforts, and pay for damaged public infrastructure.
FEMA was on the ground two days later helping conduct damage assessments. But a disaster declaration could take weeks, if it comes.
'Bringing FEMA in, it's my understanding, is not going to be a quick process,' the mayor said at a May 21 press conference. 'All elected officials at every level here are doing everything they can to make that process as quick as possible.'
That includes Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during an oversight hearing May 20 to help expedite the pending aid requests from Missouri's three previous storms and for the recent tornado. 'Yes, absolutely,' she responded.
While the city waits, thousands of volunteers have shown up to the parking lot of the YMCA's O'Fallon Park Rec Complex in North St. Louis in what they are calling the 'People's Response' to help residents in need. So far, they've helped more than 5,000 families. Volunteers have collected more than 17,280 pounds of food, according to Action St. Louis.
The last time such an outpouring occurred around here, according to locals, was in 2014 after the police killing of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson. Rasheen Aldridge, an alderman who represents part of the storm-affected area, said some of the same activists who showed up then made it a point to help now.
Hines, too, looked for ways to help his neighbors. He became an unofficial traffic director at the YMCA as thousands of cars streamed into the area to get help — or provide it.
'It's not about me,' Hines said. 'I'm staying until no one is here because there's nothing to do at my house. I have no power.'
Residents in North City described the moments after the storm as chaos: trees down everywhere; power lines damaged; limited cellphone service, making it hard to connect with loved ones. Then the sun went down, cloaking corners of the city in complete darkness.
Five days after the tornado, people still needed candles, flashlights, and batteries to make it through the night. Piles of debris filled street corners. Exterior walls were ripped off homes, exposing the inside of closets, bedrooms, and living rooms to passersby on the street. Some buildings were leveled. The downed trees in the tornado's path left a scar in the city's canopy visible from miles away.
The tornado flipped a semitrailer outside a new gas station and strip mall that had been scheduled to open this fall. One evening, Charles Stanford, a security guard for the property, sat in the parking lot to make sure no one tried to enter what remained of the building. Stanford said the project had been nearly complete. Now, it is surrounded by rubble and debris.
A giant tree crashed into the house of one of Hines' neighbors. He said the woman recently had heart surgery and had been recovering at home. But then she went back to the hospital, and he thinks stress after the tornado may be why. Hines was planning to bring her a few Hershey's Kisses, her favorite candy, to lift her spirits.
Shannette BoClair, 52, said she found her infirm father, Albert Noble, on the floor in the fetal position after the tornado passed her parents' home. A window had imploded and strong winds knocked him down. BoClair called 911 but, she said, first responders were overwhelmed by calls for help and tree-blocked streets. Her father needed medical attention right away, she said, so his family helped him hobble a mile to his grandson, who drove him to a triage station that had been set up for tornado victims.
They learned he had broken his hip, she said. He had surgery within days.
BoClair, who works as a health and wellness director at the YMCA, said she's helping care for her mother, who remained at home after the storm. BoClair is depending on meals provided by volunteers and staffers at the YMCA but said she had also spent about $500 on DoorDash meals to feed her family since the tornado hit.
As far as federal aid goes, BoClair said she hopes it comes soon. The community needs dumpsters for the debris, reconstruction, and more.
But the outpouring of support from volunteers amazed her. The People's Response drew so many volunteers that lines of cars snaked outside of the YMCA parking lot in North City. The smell of barbecue wafted through the air as residents without electricity grilled food for one another before it spoiled.
'I'm so proud of our community,' BoClair said. 'They say we don't care. We do care.'
Reed said volunteers would be stationed in the YMCA's parking lot for a few more days. But, she said, that doesn't mean the job ends there. The community will need more help to rebuild.
This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.