The Federal Emergency Management Agency started assessing damage from last week’s tornado on Wednesday.
Four teams were dispatched in St. Louis and one in St. Louis County. Each team included members of FEMA, the Small Business Administration, the City Emergency Management Agency and the State Emergency Management Agency.
Each team spent Wednesday surveying the damage across the region to see if the state qualifies for assistance to residents.
“If there is a major declaration signed, then that goes to residents, homeowners, renters,” FEMA spokesman Ryan Lowry-Lee said. “That's when we have our SBA partners come into play as well to assist both homeowners and business owners.”
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe said he would ask President Donald Trump for a major disaster declaration for federal funding following the review.
If approved, the declaration would be Kehoe’s latest federal disaster declaration request this year. He submitted requests for federal assistance after three other severe storms that are awaiting approval, including the March 14 storm in the St. Louis area, severe storms and flooding between March 30 and April 8, and storms on April 29 that spurred eight tornadoes.
Federal disaster declarations could take weeks for approval, SEMA spokesperson Mike O’Connell said.
“It's unusual that we have this many storms,” O’Connell said. “We could have a year, or two years, where you don't even make a single request of the federal government for a disaster declaration. Here it is in a matter of months.”
O’Connell said the teams started where there was the most significant damage. One team focused on the Greater Ville and Kingsway East neighborhoods, speaking with residents and inspecting homes.
“The tornado has uprooted my life,” Cottage Avenue resident Burnetta Ketchum said. “The other storm in 2023 tore my house up. I've been back in my house for a month, and it did it again.”
The storm destroyed Ketchum’s roof and left a large hole into the kitchen of her recently remodeled home. Her mother lives next door in what was once Homer G. Phillips’ home where the back of the house was damaged.
“It's really not in bad shape. It can be fixed because everything in there is up to code,” Ketchum said. “If we can get any type of assistance to save this historical home, we will appreciate it.”
People in the Kingsway East neighborhood are also hoping for assistance, including Patrice Robbins, who lost a large part of the left side of her house. She came home to a notice on her door Wednesday prohibiting her from entering the house.
“It's just like overnight, everything's been ripped away, I haven't even broke down about it yet,” Robbins said.
Lowry-Lee said FEMA hopes to finish up the individual assistance assessments by the end of the week. The more information the teams gather by the end of the week, the easier it is for Kehoe to make the disaster declaration, he said.
North St. Louis residents say the storms have been detrimental to elderly residents who make up a lot of the neighborhood population.
“There are people over here on asthmatic breathing machines. They need their insulin,” Robbins said. “We have a lot of wisdom and knowledge over here, suffering and dying because they probably don't have the resources, or the ability to get up and go and go stay at a loved one's house.”
