Tornadoes in the St. Louis region are not uncommon. The May 16 twister was an EF3 with winds up to 152 mph. Residents in the area experienced a more intense one in 2011 when an EF4, with winds of 170 mph, hit north St. Louis County. Meteorologists say climate change may increase the risk of more intense tornadoes.
Tornadoes are among the deadliest natural disasters in the United States. While they may seem to hit communities at random, the aftermath exposes disparities in disaster recovery. According to the Journal of Economic Studies entry “Tornadoes, Poverty and Race in the USA: A Five-Decade Analysis," tornadoes exacerbate racial segregation and poverty.
Researchers found that African Americans are more burdened by the effects of tornadoes than other races. The greater the poverty level and tornado risk, the greater the amount of damage to the family’s wealth. The study finds that physical damage will significantly increase abandonment and displacement, which will contribute to generations of socioeconomic inequalities.
Segregation in America is increasing, and tornadoes compound the issue, said Russ Kashian, economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and co-author of the journal article.
“When you have tornadoes, the remaining population begins to move, and it's [only] those people who can move,” Kashian said. “You're going to lose residents in an area that's already losing population … and so it compounds the segregation of both race and income.”
Tracy Buchman, an associate professor of Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and researcher Robert Drago co-authored the research paper with Kashian. They used five decades of data from various counties on tornadoes and assessed whether economic damages from the natural disasters correlated with poverty levels and African American wealth.
“When you have cities like Cleveland and Detroit and Milwaukee and St. Louis, we've gone down in population, in some cases, by 50% over the last 30 or 40 years,” Kashian said. “It's who's left behind as we move to the suburbs, and we know who it is, and it just exacerbates the problem.”
Researchers found that when resources are poured into recovery efforts, more affluent communities typically can rebuild swiftly after tornadoes because they have more wealth and insurance, Kashian said.
And if the resources do not flow into vulnerable communities, abandonment of homes can follow.
According to researchers, race and poverty levels can present barriers to recovery. The team found through an analysis of the Federal Emergency Management Agency response to flooding and tornadoes in Missouri in 2008 that individual grants were more likely given to communities with higher percentages of owner-occupied homes.
According to a National Association of Realtors homeownership report, the white homeownership rate in Missouri is 72%, one of the highest shares in the nation, while 41% of Black Missourians own homes, which is below the national average for Black Americans.
Low-income families are less likely to own homes because of their economic status. Researchers concluded that low rates of homeownership can be an obstacle to tornado recovery for African American families and poor communities.
“The community that lacks the resources to protect themselves when an emergency happens, they're vulnerable,” Kashian said. “They're strong, but they just lack that opportunity.”
Another barrier involves discriminatory property insurance practices against African Americans. The journal article cites evidence that Black families often are not offered the same policies, full replacement insurance, or are charged more than other races for the same policy.
“You can drive up and down the streets after this [tornadoes] happens — and you can identify those houses — and the problem is when you come by six months later and the blue tarp is still there,” Kashian said.
In 2019, the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University School of Law, along with several community organizations that work to eradicate environmental injustices in the area, put out an Environmental Racism in St. Louis report. It touched on environmental risks that Black St. Louisans have compared to white residents and how those risks increase racial disparities in health, housing and economic status.
The May 16 tornado amplified the pre-existing disparities of redlining, lack of community investment, disaster education and environmental issues, said Leah Clyburn, who helped write the report.
“You already had dilapidated houses … there's going to be more of that,” she said. “There's going to be some people who are just going to walk away … which then what does that do with your morale, your mental health and you're adding more particulate matter [in the air].”
Clyburn is a board member with Sow Joy People’s Fund, a community environmental justice organization that financially supports nonprofits in the sector. She said city officials need to provide some rental relief for tenants who were affected by the storm and hold landlords accountable for their properties, which could help limit racial segregation after a natural disaster.
“In the report, we talked about there are a lot of people who own property in St. Louis who don't live here and aren't being held accountable for mold, for the breakdown of the home or the building,” she said. “Hold them accountable, not by kicking everybody out and selling it off … but we need to maintain people's ability to have a place to live and without raising the rates.”
To mitigate the racial inequalities of tornadoes in African American communities, Clyburn and Kashian said there should be more training and education around tornado preparedness, conversations about protecting generational wealth and better city and county emergency plans for after disasters hit.
“Across the board, everyone suffers, whether it's a wealthy neighborhood or a poor neighborhood,” Kashian said. “We sit back and say, ‘Well, the tornado has no racial or wealth preference,’ but of course it doesn’t, it's the weather, but the outcomes do.”
