Tenelle Winmore just graduated from St. Louis University with his Masters of Arts in teaching the day before an EF3 tornado struck his neighborhood and childhood stomping grounds in north St. Louis. He was still riding the high of graduation when he watched the storm roll in from his kitchen window in Fountain Park.
“I did some hot yoga that morning. I got back maybe 10 or 15 minutes before everything got going, and I thought it was probably just a normal [storm],” Winmore told St. Louis on the Air. “We deal with tornadoes on a regular basis in terms of the warnings, and it usually doesn’t hit the city … and I’m looking out the window as [the storm] started picking up, and my peach tree left the yard — jumped down the hill to where my car was.”
At that point, Winmore realized that this was not like every storm he experienced growing up. He sought shelter in his basement and emerged once the threat had passed.
“I immediately noticed that the biggest tree we have, in the middle of our street, was completely uprooted to the point where it was a big crater in the middle of the parkway,” he said. “I saw what I thought was my roof hanging over the back of the house, but it was a neighbor’s roof. We all were kind of just in shock like, ‘Whoa, this really happened.’”
Winmore owns two properties in his neighborhood — the one he resides in and another across the street that he’s been renovating. It’s the latter that suffered the most damage — receiving a red notice from the City of St. Louis’ Building Division.
“It could be a lot worse. I have a tree that’s lodged into the back corner of the house. Luckily, that’s structurally a place that can bear weight,” he said. “But [if it landed] a foot to the right? My contractor said I would have been in bad shape. It would have just went straight through the house.”
Winmore said that both of his properties will be repaired in time, but he is concerned about bad actors taking advantage of his neighbors in this vulnerable state.
“Somebody tried to break into my home. People are circling around, licking their chops in a vulturous way, looking at the new property that may become available, trying to buy homes from people,” he said. “For the [tornado victims] that are elders, how do they rebuild? I fear that they may be pushed into a different area because they might not have had insurance or there was a lapse. It’s been a lot of things going on economically to where you could not have been prepared for this situation. I would hate to see people be displaced, and I feel it’s inevitable at this point.”
Despite the bad actors, Winmore is resolved to see his community members lead the charge in immediate “self-deployment.”
“Everybody’s situation is different. I think everybody is saddened — seeing the north side in the state that it’s in — to see the devastation has had a huge impact on everybody,” he said. “It’s also made us come together. … I’ve seen a ton of unity and a resilience to make St. Louis stronger or better than where we’re at right now.”
For more on Tenelle Winmore’s experience post-tornado, including the support he’s seen from St. Louis’ creative community, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
