STLPR0%
12 takeaways from a year reporting on the May 16 tornado 72%
5/18/2026, 10:00:00 AM
Topics: Government Politics And Issues, Torn
BS Summary: This article contains 35 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Biased Writer Voice, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 28.4% saturation with 322 hits. Analysis detected 2,297 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,134 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 64.8% and a BS Rank of 72% (4,817 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 71.40% of the article peer group.
Blue tarps, many of them shredded by a year of Missouri weather, still dot roofs throughout north St.
Louis, where an EF3 tornado cut a wide swath of destruction on May 16, 2025.
For the past year, St.
Louis Public Radio has been reporting on the aftermath of the storm and found that decisions made locally, as well as at the federal level, slowed recovery efforts.
That reporting culminated in the series, "Torn," which began the Monday before the one-year anniversary of the tornado.
The stories examine the failures of recovery, the fears about north St.
Louis’ future and also the tremendous spirit of those working to rebuild.
However, if you read just one story, make it this one.
In it, the staff members working on “Torn” identify key takeaways from the year of reporting.
Here’s what they found.
1.
St.
Louis still isn’t staffed for the next disaster
City Emergency Management Agency staffing still does not meet national disaster preparedness standards, even if the Board of Aldermen approves a proposed $300,000 increase in the budget that would allow the agency to add another staff member for fiscal 2027.
This is the primary agency within the city tasked with responding to disasters and working with FEMA to gain reimbursements.
2.
Cities and states may not be equipped to take over for FEMA
As federal officials consider wide-ranging changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency like putting disaster response more in states’ hands, St.
Louis stands as a case study that shows cities and states are not all in a place to handle and recover from major natural disasters, despite those disasters increasing in severity and cost due to climate change.
3.
Experience matters
Mayor Cara Spencer staffed a recovery office with people who didn’t have experience responding to a disaster or working with FEMA, so the team had to heavily rely on outside consultants.
Other cities in the tornado’s path, like Clayton, had staff with significant disaster recovery experience and had an easier time with FEMA, though experience wasn’t the only reason for that.
4.
St.
Louis waited a long time for an absent FEMA
City officials knew as early as June that FEMA was unlikely to pay to demolish previously condemned buildings, but Spencer and her team continued to ask FEMA about that possibility for months.
The city finally started demolishing those condemned buildings in March.
In an interview with STLPR, Chief Recovery Officer Julian Nicks said that “hindsight's 20-20” and that he didn’t believe FEMA would come through with those funds but felt obligated to try.
At the time, Spencer said she disagreed and believed the money would come through.
Nicks has since told the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch that he wished he’d set up a demolition program immediately.
5.
St.
Louis chose to start from the ground up
The St.
Louis Recovery Office spent the first year of the recovery building entirely new programs to help residents, but many of those services were already being provided by other departments in City Hall.
A former department head says those existing programs could have been adapted to help people much faster, though the mayor’s office pushed back on that assertion.
6.
Response is testing Black St.
Louisans' faith
St.
Louis has a long history of neglecting and pushing out Black communities; see Mill Creek or Pruitt-Igoe.
Residents worry the May 16 tornado will spur another majority-Black community to be erased from the map.
Many Black residents told STLPR that they are not surprised by the lack of accountability and inaction, and that the tornado is the latest example of the city’s disinvestment and neglect of Black neighborhoods.
Others said that they feel apathy from residents in whiter parts of St.
Louis who have the money to help but remain socially segregated from Black residents hit hardest by the storm.
7.
City Hall passed on a meeting with a top Army Corps official
Mayor Cara Spencer did not attend a meeting with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers official who commands the Mississippi Valley at the same time that she was asking to have the agency lead debris removal in the city.
Weeks later, the city’s request was denied.
The mayor said the meeting wasn’t about the tornado, but Missouri state Rep.
Colin Wellenkamp, who arranged the opportunity, said tornado recovery was supposed to be part of it.
The mayor’s office has said it had other opportunities to meet with the Corps.
8.
The tornado may make St.
Louis’ vacancy problem worse
The city is struggling to figure out how it might be able to demolish the vacant and condemned properties in north St.
Louis after FEMA rejected its request to reimburse that work.
With roughly 26,000 vacant properties in the city, it could mean a longstanding problem will only get worse.
9.
Population loss and a homeownership gap
The Black homeownership rate is an increasing concern in north St.
Louis.
Many residents fear that the longer it takes the city to demolish homes and ramp up home repairs, the more likely people are to give up on their tornado-destroyed homes and leave neighborhoods with even fewer residents.
So many homeowners who have uprooted themselves from their paid-off or nearly paid-off homes are wrestling with what to do next, whether that’s buying a home elsewhere in the region or renting.
10.
Insurance isn’t a panacea
Many people STLPR spoke with are still battling their insurers a year after the tornado, over issues as small as window replacement or as large as their entire home.
Online commenters often are quick to blame tornado victims for not having insurance, but the reality is far from those passing comments.
Many residents who were insured feel betrayed — and they’re fighting tooth and nail to get what they’re owed.
11.
Community organizations stepped up to fill the gap
Community organizations have been doing much of the heavy lifting when it comes to recovery.
Yes, some have received city assistance, but many have complained that it’s simply not enough.
Over the course of the year, community organizers say fatigue, mental anguish and anxiety have set in, but they continue showing up for the community because they fear no one else will.
12.
Even in tragedy, hope remains
There’s still hope.
It doesn’t always manifest in big ways, like a press conference announcing a new program or funding that would one day be dispersed to support tornado victims.
Instead, residents say it looks like neighbors sharing a meal or walking across generational divides to help one another through the storm.
While the devastating May 2025 tornado tore at the seams of St.
Louis’ already fragile tapestry, there is still an opportunity to make the community better and stronger than ever.
Analysis
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