STLPR0%
5 things St. Louis needs to do prepare for the next natural disaster 26%
By Hiba Ahmad0%
5/15/2026, 10:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Unattributed Quote, and Appeal to Authority, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 21.4% saturation with 286 hits. Analysis detected 1,567 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,338 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 37.6% and a BS Rank of 26% (12,576 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 74.80% of the article peer group.
St.
Louis wasn’t ready when an EF3 tornado hit the city last May, leaving multiple people dead and wreaking $1.6 billion in damage across the region.
In the early days after the storm, local community groups, nonprofits and residents stepped in to provide hot meals and clothing while city fire, police and EMS departments worked to clear roadways and treat medical injuries.
As days turned into weeks, residents displaced by the storm criticized the city and FEMA for failing to provide enough temporary shelter and meet basic needs.
In July, the St.
Louis Board of Aldermen approved $30 million in interest accrued on the Rams settlement funds for tornado relief, but the city failed to quickly stand up programs to support emergency stabilization of homes and rebuilding efforts.
Now, nearly a year later, STL Recovers and the mayor’s office say the city has built out a new infrastructure to help residents demolish unsafe homes and work toward repairs.
The city has also made gains in emergency preparedness, including repairing nearly all of the tornado sirens that failed on May 16 and moving the siren activation site to the St.
Louis Fire Department, where it is staffed 24/7.
The sirens are now automated and work in conjunction with the National Weather Service, which eliminates the need for manual activation.
St.
Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson explains how the city’s new automated storm alarm system works — including manual override alarms under the red caps — at the Fire Department’s headquarters on April 2 in north St.
Louis.
The recently replaced system was scrutinized after it failed to be activated during last May’s tornado.
The City Emergency Management Agency has also increased staffing by one person this year and is slated to receive $300,000 more in funding for the next year in an effort to add more positions.
Mayor Cara Spencer told St.
Louis Public Radio in March that the city has signed a mutual aid agreement with the American Red Cross, which will make it easier to quickly create emergency shelters in the wake of another disaster.
But city officials and tornado-impacted residents believe there is still more work to do.
Here are five ongoing challenges St.
Louis needs to address before the next storm.
Fund CEMA
Gregg Favre, left, the new St.
Louis City Emergency Management Agency commissioner, speaks to James Jackson, the city’s Street Department director, at the agency’s headquarters on January in south St.
Louis.
Problem: CEMA is tasked with leading the response and recovery in the wake of a disaster and working proactively to train city leadership to navigate major events.
The agency has been chronically underfunded and understaffed for years.
Solution: CEMA Commissioner Gregg Favre requested $1.5 million to boost his agency’s staffing to 17 positions, up from the seven it currently has.
But the proposed budget for fiscal 2027 gives CEMA about $830,000 and eight total positions.
Although eight staff positions would be an increase in overall staffing, it does not meet national standards, according to Favre.
Additional staffing would help the city plan more effectively for severe weather, which has increased in recent history due in part to climate change.
Status: CEMA currently has three full-time staff working in the agency.
It’s in the process of hiring for the four vacant positions, with some new staff members possibly joining as early as June.
Update the Emergency Operations Plan
Problem: In an interview earlier this year, Spencer confirmed the city is still operating under a 2003 version of an Emergency Operations Plan.
The plan establishes a workflow of how to delegate responsibilities during a natural disaster.
The plan is outdated: For example, it does not account for how cellphones are used in the wake of an emergency.
Solution: CEMA needs to hire emergency management specialists who will work to update the city’s EOP by the end of the year, according to Favre.
Status: Favre confirmed CEMA is in the process of bringing on three experienced emergency management specialists, some of whom will be assigned to work on the EOP.
Forge mutual aid agreements
Various details from a firetruck are pictured on Jan. 15, 2025, in Freeburg.
Problem: Mutual aid agreements are formalized agreements between agencies and nonprofit organizations across local municipalities that are activated in emergencies.
But the city lacked enough mutual aid agreements, which slowed down the initial emergency response in the early weeks after the storm.
Solution: STLPR spoke with the Clayton city manager and emergency management officials in St.
Louis County, who said that mutual aid agreements led to an effective tornado response.
The St.
Louis Fire Department, for example, had an agreement with the St.
Louis County Fire Department, which is why they were able to share staffing across Clayton and St.
Louis to quickly clear roadways.
Status: The city said in a press conference in April that it was working toward creating more mutual aid agreements with other municipalities.
Spencer has also said she would support unifying emergency management agencies across the city and county, which would streamline the region’s response to major disasters or events.
Create processes to move money faster
The St.
Louis Board of Aldermen meets at City Hall on April 21 in downtown St.
Louis.
Problem: The Board of Aldermen approved $30 million in interest that had accrued on the Rams settlement funds in July 2025, but the city struggled to get that money into programs that directly helped tornado-impacted residents due to layers of “red tape,” according to Chief Recovery Officer Julian Nicks.
City officials said they did not have the infrastructure to channel funding to residents, including a home repair or hotel program, and build from the ground up.
The city also has a contract approval process that includes obtaining multiple bids from different contractors and other steps to prevent fraud and waste, but the process has proved to be cumbersome in the wake of an emergency.
That is especially problematic because cities must follow their own existing procurement processes to receive reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Solution: In 2025, the Board of Aldermen said the city needed to work on speeding up its contracting process in times of emergency but did not pass legislation to do so for tornado recovery.
Pete Gaynor, a former FEMA administrator under the first Trump administration, told STLPR that the city should have on-call contractors on standby at all times who can be quickly tapped in case of emergency.
Status: The city has not passed legislation to reform the city’s contracting process.
Maintain institutional knowledge
St.
Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, right, laughs alongside Julian Nicks, the city’s chief recovery and neighborhood transformation officer, before a press conference announcing the city’s Private Property Assistance Program at the Urban League of Metropolitan St.
Louis Women’s Business Center on Oct. 21 in St.
Louis’ Penrose neighborhood.
Problem: With every new mayoral administration in St.
Louis comes a new Cabinet of city leadership.
When the tornado hit, Spencer had been in office for about a month.
Then in the first six months of the tornado response, the city lost more institutional knowledge through departures and firings.
Spencer fired CEMA Commissioner Sarah Russell, and interim Chief of Staff Nancy Hawes left the job.
Nahuel Fefer, former Executive Director of the Community Development Administration, left six months after the storm.
Spencer confirmed to STLPR the city leaned on consultants like McKinsey & Company and Tetra Tech for expertise in navigating the May 16 tornado.
Solution: Some city officials, including Alderwoman Daniela Valázquez, have introduced legislation in the past to create a city manager or administrator role, which would not be appointed by the mayor.
Clayton City Manager David Gipson told STLPR his city was able to lead a successful tornado response because the position offers continuity in city leadership in times of crisis.
Status: There are no current proposals to add a city manager position.
STLPR's Kate Grumke, Kavahn Mansouri and Rachel Lippmann contributed to this report.
Analysis
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