In the 100 days after a powerful EF3 tornado tore through St. Louis, residents in the tornado’s path are still navigating insurance claims, tarped roofs and boarded-up windows. Stress, frustration and disappointment in elected officials are on the minds of thousands of St. Louisans who are attempting to pick up the pieces of their lives and find a semblance of normalcy.
In the immediate, confused aftermath of the tornado, there was a massive influx of volunteer-led stabilization efforts — despite Mayor Cara Spencer’s plea for residents to not “self-deploy.” Many of those volunteers are still working in some capacity to meet the needs of their neighbors and their own selves.
On the west side of St. Louis, a group of residents living on Enright Avenue have found comraderie. Monet Beatty, a salon owner and homeowner, called the tornado a “beautiful disaster.”
“Throughout all the rubble, all the debris, all the ugliness that our homes may look like right now, I've been able to meet and form relationships with really beautiful people,” Beatty told St. Louis on the Air. “To see people that care so much about others, even though we're all going through our own disasters, it's just a really beautiful thing.”
Beatty met Ali Rand, a stay-at-home mother of five, during the first week of post-tornado cleanup led by fellow homeowners and residents. After spending a few days on different blocks helping where she could, Rand got a call from one of Beatty’s neighbors. Rand said she immediately noticed the differences between how the tornado impacted her block in the Central West End compared to the Academy neighborhood — which is north of Delmar.
“I thought we’d be there for three days. I remember pulling up on Enright and being like, ‘We're not going to be here for three days.’ It was the worst destruction I'd ever seen in my life, and we had been in it already for seven days at this point,” Rand said. “It looked like a bomb had went off… and we haven’t left since.”
Beatty and Rand have become friends. As they’ve helped board up homes, they have been able to emotionally support each other.
“I can talk to my friends and my family about it, but they don't know what it feels like to leave your house that morning, everything is normal, and then your whole world turned upside down in a matter of an hour,” Beatty said. “[Rand] understands how I feel, [and] I understand how she feels. I think that's something that only someone else that has gone through it can actually understand.”
Rand said many of her friends who live outside the tornado’s path have no idea how much the storm is still affecting her and her neighbors.
“It feels like in so many ways, that my house, my neighborhood, my friends' homes, are just stuck. They're just stuck in this timeline of May 16. When I talk to other people about it, who don't live in that vicinity, it's almost like their eyes glaze over a little bit like, ‘That can’t still be your life,’” she said. “When I talk to Monet, she understands that's very much our life. It's just like a holding pattern in an airplane, like you're not quite ready to land, but there's nothing to do yet, so you just keep circling.”
Along with bonding over shared realities of navigating home repairs, insurance claims and caring for their respective families, Beatty and Rand share frustrations with how elected leadership and government agencies have responded to the tornado.
“It’s disappointing. It’s frustrating, and at this point I’ve kind of lost hope,” Beatty said. “FEMA has been the most helpful only because I'm able to talk to live people. I'm able to get a response. When I've called the city for any sort of help or resources. I've got none. … I know that the alderpeople did agree as far as the Rams money. What's happening with it, or what is going to happen with it? I can't say.”
Rand said she would like to see Spencer spend time on Enright and join in on the stabilization efforts. She extended an open invitation to her on St. Louis on the Air.
“The type of work we're doing has changed. It's no longer really dangerous, laborious debris removal. Sometimes just weed whacking, picking up small debris,” Rand said. “I know she's a very, very busy woman, but take the time to see our stories firsthand. I think she doesn't have a home in a neighborhood that was damaged firsthand by this tornado, and so that means she gets a break from it at night. Monet and I don't.”
For more with Ali Rand and Monet Beatty, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube or click the play button below.
Have a question or comment about tornado recovery efforts? Send an email to talk@stlpr.org, share your thoughts via our St. Louis on the Air Facebook group, or leave a voice mail at 314-516-6397 and help inform our coverage.
“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. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
