A citywide tornado-related debris removal and housing repair plan for St. Louis is underway.
Mayor Cara Spencer announced Thursday that the city will use the remaining $12 million of Rams settlement interest funds to help residents recover from the May tornado.
Of that money, $5.35 million will help bring dumpsters to private properties and allow nonprofits, community groups and consulting services to perform site assessments to allow city demolition and residential debris removal. Another $5 million will help repair affordable, public and nonprofit vacant housing units. The city’s Recovery Office will receive $1.65 million to help with staffing and consulting support.
“Private property debris removal and intermediate housing remain top priorities for the Recovery Office,” Spencer said in a press release. “These funds are a starting point to a larger tranche of funding to ensure we remove all debris from our communities and ensure our impacted residents have access to safe housing by winter.”
The recovery funding is in addition to the nearly $20 million already set aside for immediate debris removal, housing stabilization and repairs the city allocated over the summer.
Spencer requested assistance from the Army Corps of Engineering in July to help with full-scale debris removal and to demolish properties that are irreparably damaged from the storm. The May tornado left an estimated 1 million tons of debris in the city.
“We know that in cities that have experienced mass destruction like we saw on May 16 here in the city of St Louis, the Army Corps has led the debris removal and demolition,” she said. “That's what happened in Joplin. It's what's happened in other communities following disasters the size of the May 16 tornado. That has not happened here.”
She is pressing the federal government to act soon because of the upcoming change in seasons. Right now, the Corps is assessing the damage to better understand the size of the project and the estimated total cost.
“The folks that have been on the ground helping us do the evaluations have been great partners,” she said. “However, they (federal government) have not deployed the resources yet that we need. We are continuing to push on that.”
Debris removal plan
Over the past few months, residents have been complaining to city officials about the lingering debris in front of their homes or on their property. City crews began picking up tornado-related debris this week from alleys and street curbs in Fountain Park, Lewis Place, Kingsway East and Penrose. That will run through Saturday.
Crews will work through the Jeff-Vander-Lou, Academy/Sherman Park, Visitation Park, Kingsway West and O’Fallon neighborhoods from Sept. 8 through Sept. 13. Residents in West End, Skinker-DeBaliviere, Central West End, the Greater Ville, the Ville, College Hill and Fairground Park neighborhoods should expect crews from Sept. 15 through Sept. 20.
“We are committed to ensuring communities can continue to drive cleanup in their neighborhoods and help impacted residents find safe housing before winter, as families make decisions about rebuilding and secure funding and contractors to repair their homes," said St. Louis Chief Recovery Officer Julian Nicks.
After the initial cleanup efforts, city crews will focus on follow-ups and cleaning up outside the original zones. Debris removal is expected to last up to eight weeks.
The city is asking residents to place debris only in the areas between sidewalks and streets and not in alleys or streets. Black trash bags should not be used; debris must be visible for verification.
Debris must be in piles sorted by vegetation and green waste, household hazardous waste, appliances and electronics and wood, roofing and bricks.
City officials said that if residents want to keep their bricks, they should not be placed in the area between sidewalks and streets unless they are stacked and organized. Crews will remove unorganized bricks.
Those who miss debris pickup days can submit a request to the Citizens Service Bureau or call 311.
This story was updated to add additional comments from St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer.
