According to St. Louis officials, 788 businesses had some level of damage from the May 16 storm. Many wards reported little to no damage; 10th Ward businesses suffered the most.
Of the business owners who reported damage to the city, 260 businesses in the 10th Ward were damaged. Sixty-nine of those had severe damage.
During the St. Louis License Collector's Office's business recovery resource forum last week, Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard told people businesses in her ward experience the most devastation, but she plans to help every business that needs assistance.
“The 10th Ward has eight neighborhoods … if you lay a map of the path of the tornado on top of a map of the 10th Ward, it is direct alignment,” Clark Hubbard said. “It went through all eight neighborhoods.”
About 50 business owners crammed into the Kennedy Room at City Hall last week to hear from officials about recovery efforts for businesses in the area that had storm damage. Many owners had questions about financial relief, and others wanted to know how to get dumpsters to areas hit hardest.
In a recent St. Louis Development Corporation meeting, officials shared that businesses in wards one through eight didn’t sustain much damage. Only eight businesses in those wards reported extensive damage. However, companies in wards 10 through 14 reported more and higher levels of damage.
Neighborhoods with the most businesses damaged include the Greater Ville, Lewis Place, Academy and Fountain Park, all in north St. Louis.
As the raging 150 mph winds blew through St. Louis, Aliyah Almasri ran to the back of Pop's Fish and Chicken Market at 1107 N. Kingshighway with her son and some customers. Within seconds, the roof caved in and gave her a concussion. Debris scratched up her son and some of the customers who were inside at the time.
Her Fountain Park-area business, which is a family restaurant, store and creamery, was destroyed. She has cleaned up most of the debris but still needs a dumpster to haul off heavy trash.
“I haven't got any direct resources, that's something that we really, really, really need, because there was food inside and we don't want it to accumulate like that,” Almasri said. “So that's something we really came looking for help for, because we can't do it by ourselves.”
The Ohio native moved to St. Louis eight years ago and opened the market. She said she wants to stay in the neighborhood and rebuild, but it will be hard because she accidentally let the insurance lapse two weeks before the storm.
“They sent me a text message and I ignored it because I have a lot of insurance policies,” she said. “It came at the wrong time of me not paying attention to it.”
Almasri said she had just changed her bank card number, and the automatic insurance payment was rejected. She had forgotten to update her card information, and that was what the insurance company was reminding her to do. She said the policy she had would have covered the damage, but it was an honest mistake.
She contacted the company but was told there was nothing it could do. Now, she is considering a loan, but she is hoping to get a grant from some agencies that could help her repair the roof. The business is closed until then.
“I want to keep it, because we were like family. The people that worked in the store were like family. The people who came in the store were like family,” she said. “I've heard St Louis is the most dangerous place in the world, especially the Kingshighway area. I don't see it like that … I want to stay, and I don't want to go anywhere.”
Businesses in the 12th Ward also reported extensive damage. There were 214 companies damaged in that ward, including MC Appliances at 4501 Martin Luther King Blvd.
The used home appliance and service center sustained minimal damage to the roof. However, days after the storm, the roof damage caused flooring and window issues. Owner Demetrius Jones said he is having a tough time with his insurance company, so he has paid many expenses out of pocket to keep the business running.
Jones came to the business forum to see if there were any financial resources other than loans available for business owners.
“I believe our number is right at about $27,000 now, and it's still going up,” he said. “We still haven't got a HVAC up and running, and that was snatched off the roof.”
He said the insurance has only covered about half of that, but he needs assistance from the city. Jones wants to continue to repair the building, because he said there are not that many Black business owners in the area anymore.
“We are the community over there and we lack in providing services to each other,” he said. “Our community shouldn't have to leave the community to get certain services … there's enough of us that can do business and provide that in our community.”
