Penrose Street in north St. Louis was a sea of red bricks on Saturday morning, after storms and a tornado tore through the region on Friday afternoon.
The majority of the homes on the street are damaged, and some are totally collapsed. Throughout the city's O'Fallon neighborhood, dozens of historic trees are snapped in half or uprooted by the wind and power lines are strewn across the road. Electricity is shut down.
Outside, residents are doing the best they can to start cleaning up the devastating damage.
“Most of my life I lived here on the north side, and I've never experienced a tornado in St. Louis at all, never,” said Dolly Baskin, who lives on Penrose Street. She was at work when she got a call from her housemate, Cornell Jeffrey, his voice trembling, saying that their home had been hit.
“I had to park down the street because I couldn't get through,” she said. “I jumped out and I ran down here and when I got here and walked in, I just fell to my knees and cried.”
The storm blew the roof off and ripped off the back of Baskin’s home. Inside, her belongings were tossed about by the storm. The refrigerator doors were torn off.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said more than 5,000 homes in the region were affected by what the National Weather Service confirmed as an EF-3 tornado, with wind speeds estimated to be between 136 mph and 165 mph.
At least five people were killed and 38 others were injured, Spencer said at a media briefing featuring city and state officials on Saturday morning.
“We are focused on life, saving lives and keeping people safe and allowing our community to grieve the loss of the folks that have suffered so far through this horrific, horrific storm,” Spencer said, adding that residents should dial 911 or 211, which connects callers to United Way of Greater St. Louis, for help.
The city is focusing on clearing streets, she said, and will then move on to fixing traffic signals.
City officials are asking people to stay home and refrain from using phone lines to keep them open for first responders. A curfew in St. Louis Metropolitan Police Districts 5 and 6, roughly the area north of Forest Park within city bounds, will begin at 9 p.m. and end at 6 a.m. Sunday.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe said he’s activated the State Emergency Management Agency and deployed fire search-and-rescue teams. He added that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is standing by to assist with the effort.
Spencer said that the Urban League headquarters at 1408 Kingshighway will be the hub for cleanup efforts and, by 2 p.m., the staging place for the city’s resource distribution.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said officials expect 17 search teams to have completed sweeping buildings in the tornado's path by Sunday morning. They have traced the storm’s route from where it first touched down in Clayton across the Mississippi River.
“There is collateral damage on the outside of the actual path that we check,” Jenkerson said. “This is a very destructive storm.”
That’s something Joseph Marshall, 63, knows too well. He was home with his friend, Dorothy, on Penrose Street in north city when the tornado hit. They were headed a few steps down into the basement when they heard a large bang and glass shattering.
The top of a tree had broken off and hit the house. A large tree limb pierced the side of the kitchen wall and lodged into the ceiling.
He’s focused on getting it removed and starting to clean up the damage. Like many in the region, Marshall doesn’t have power and needs lights and ice for the cooler he’s keeping food in.
He knows it could have been much worse.
“Might as well keep praying,” he said. “We were lucky.”
The cleanup work
A couple blocks away, where the O'Fallon and Penrose neighborhoods meet along North Newstead Avenue, music plays as about 50 people clear debris and pass out food and water.
Trees are down here, too, and the road is clogged with detritus. Everywhere there are piles of bricks from buildings that have been ripped apart. Many still are standing with their interiors exposed to the elements.
“If you never saw Mother Nature's worst, this is what it looks like,” said Darnell Roy, 36. He lives around the corner but grew up in this neighborhood. “Our corner store can’t even open because the roof’s gone.”
DeAndre Farmer, 37, also grew up here though he now lives in Kirkwood. He came back to help out after seeing the need on social media.
He’s canvassing the area and offering toiletries, emergency contraceptives, ponchos, shirts, water, hamburgers, hot dogs and chips.
“We’ve got some of everything,” he said, comparing it to a tailgate party spread. “We got to help each other, protect each other. So we just got out here and put our best foot forward.”
Residents and volunteers congregated around a large table where people are passing out food. Among them is Missouri State Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs. She’s volunteering with Action St. Louis and brought about 16 fellow volunteers. They’re cleaning the area up, but there’s a problem. The trash bins in the alleys flipped over in the storm.
“There's nowhere to put the debris,” Roy said.
But still, the mood is positive as community members find ways to pitch in.
Seeing the community pull together like this surprised Shirley Everett.
“It made me cry,” said the 88-year-old, who rode out the tornado in her home. “It’s so sweet to know people care about each other. We need to get together more because north St. Louis has been neglected so long.”
This story has been updated.
