Health, Science & Environment

Photos: St. Louis begins recovery after a powerful tornado ripped through the city

St. Louis Public Radio | By Brian Munoz,

Kyle Pyatt, Cristina Fletes-Mach, Lylee Gibbs

Published May 17, 2025 at 5:25 PM CDT

Updated May 30, 2025 at 11:25 AM CDT

A woman is silhouetted and looks at a tarp covering her tornado-damaged roof. — Patricia Ming, 65, examines the torn-up ceiling on the third floor of her tornado-damaged home along Enright Avenue on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in north St. Louis. The Missouri National Guard began groundwork in the city yesterday, staffing debris drop-off sites that residents like Ming — still reeling from the deadly May 16 tornado — hope to rely on.

St. Louis residents are beginning to recover after an EF-3 tornado tore through central and northern parts of the city, damaging thousands of homes and killing five people.

Shirley Everett, 88, was sitting just inside the front window of her home on Red Bud Avenue in north St. Louis when the sky suddenly turned dark.

"I heard a real loud wind, a loud noise, and then the windows started shaking and rattling," she said. "I knew there was a disaster going on."

Dozens of volunteers from across the city gathered in north St. Louis — especially along Red Bud Avenue — to help clear bricks, tree limbs and shattered glass.

Jes Star, 32, from Tower Grove East, said the historic significance of north city and the devastation compelled her to help however she could.

"I woke up this morning and was like, 'That was incredibly close to where I live,'" she said, adding it was lucky her neighborhood was spared. "It is not luck that this part of the city will not receive as much support and services than other parts."

Rasheen Aldridge, alderman for the 14th Ward, echoed those concerns as he joined cleanup efforts in the neighborhood alongside other elected officials.

"It literally had looked like a bomb had just went off. Blocks and blocks of homes that are just gone," he said. "It's heartbreaking. ... The rebuild is not going to happen overnight."

For Everett, seeing neighbors and strangers come together to help her community has made the world's difference to her.

"It's so sweet that people care about each other," she said, holding back tears as she watched volunteers work. "We need to get together more because north St. Louis has been neglected so long."

See photos of the cleanup efforts by St. Louis Public Radio visuals editor Brian Munoz, Lylee Gibbs, Cristina Fletes-Mach and Woodscreek's Kyle Pyatt below:

Patricia Ming, 65, leans on the front gate leading to her home that was damaged by the tornado May 28, 2025 on Enright Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri. Ming has lived in the home since she was 3 years old. “I would never think that nothing like this would even happen in this neighborhood, you hear about it in other little counties and you think ‘oh they didn’t build those houses right’ and we have brick houses and look what it done to us,” Ming said. — Patricia Ming, 65, leans on the front gate of her home on Enright Avenue which was damaged by a tornado on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in north St. Louis. Ming has lived in the house since she was 3 years old. “I never thought something like this would happen in this neighborhood," she said. "You hear about it in little counties and think, ‘Oh, they didn’t build those houses right.’ But we have brick houses — and look what it did to us.”

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A damaged and standing home sit next to one another on Enright Avenue a week after a tornado swept the area May 28, 2025 on Enright Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri.

Lylee Gibbs / St. Louis Public Radio

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Sandra Harris, 58, looks towards the back of her tornado-damaged retirement home where her two-story back porch used to be May 28, 2025 on Enright Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri.

Lylee Gibbs / St. Louis Public Radio