23-05-2025
St. Louis locals request insurance info after EF3 tornado
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — On May 16, an EF3 tornado tore a mile-wide path through St. Louis, and now residents are seeking information about the number of homes that were uninsured in the affected zip codes.
The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance (DCI) says it received numerous requests for more information about how many homes were uninsured in the affected zip codes. They say there is no such data available.
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The DCI says the department does collect information from the insurance industry about the policies issued within the state.
The DCI says this policy information consists of rough numbers based on figures derived from the American Community Survey (ACS) produced by the U.S. Census Bureau (2023), and the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance annual zip-code data collection (2024).
'During my visit to St. Louis on Tuesday, I received multiple requests not only about data for the number of insured homes and renters we had in the impacted area but also about the number of uninsured,' said DCI Department Director Angela Nelson. 'While information about uninsured isn't available, the department wanted to provide assistance to policymakers assessing community needs. We were able to make a rough estimate of how many potentially uninsured homes and renters we may have by matching the ACS data with our department's zip code collection data. While this number is certainly not exact; it is fluid and subject to change, it does provide a general picture of what we may be dealing with in terms of uninsured losses.'
Officials say the most heavily uninsured areas are in North County zip codes 63115, 63107, and 63113. This includes both homeowners and renters and estimates that approximately 90% of the renters in these zip codes could be uninsured, while the number of uninsured homes could be around 67%.
Significant uninsured areas are in the more densely populated zip codes of the North Riverfront area of 63147, the Central West End neighborhood of 63108, and the West End/Skinker DeBaliviere and DeBaliviere Place neighborhoods of 63112. Approximately 63% of renters in these areas could be uninsured, while around 49% of homeowners could be uninsured.
The zip codes of Richmond Heights 63117; the St. Louis neighborhood associated with 63110 that includes Forest Park, Shaw, The Hill, Central West End, and Cheltenham; and Clayton's 63105 neighborhood have lower uninsured numbers of renters and homeowners, but they're still concerning. Fewer than 10% of renters could be uninsured in these zip codes, and nearly 19% of homeowners could be uninsured.
The DCI says they will be issuing a bulletin that requests health insurers to cover the costs of emergency prescription drug refills. The bulletin is being issued to further aid in the effectuation of Governor Mike Kehoe's Executive Order 25-24, issued on May 20, 2025.
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