Six months after an EF3 tornado ripped through St. Louis, the storm’s victims are still navigating insurance woes, overbooked contractors and safety concerns for the deteriorating properties neighboring their homes. For those still picking up the pieces of their lives, it can feel like hardly any time has passed at all.
It’s also been six months since 13-year-old Dylan Nolan slept in her bedroom. Her family’s home in north St. Louis was severely damaged on May 16. Besides their entire roof landing on her front lawn, her room was hit the hardest of any in the building.
“The tornado hit the back of the house first and went forward, and my room is in the back of the house,” she explained. “[My brother’s] room didn’t get touched! It’s favoritism!"
Today, there are more laughs among the Nolans and a sign of relief due to a new roof on their home. It’s one of many steps in the right direction as Dylan’s parents, Gloria Nolan and her husband, Kevin, get ready for the holidays with their own loved ones.
Every year, Gloria and Kevin also bring Christmas joy to strangers as Cocoa Santa and Mrs. Claus.
“We did [save] his suits, but some of the items were left back. His hats and gloves, some of his accessories, but we were able to salvage most of it,” Gloria said. “[Cocoa Santa] is up and going ready for this season. He's already at the Galleria Mall on Sundays.”
The Nolans are still living in temporary housing while the interior of their home gets a full rehab. When she gets the chance to visit, Dylan is struck by how different her neighborhood park looks.
“We lost a lot of trees in the park near our house. I usually walk around there with my mom and my dog. … And now when we drive past it's just flat land with stumps everywhere,” she said. “It's sad, it's kind of depressing, because [the trees were] always there, and now it's just gone. Even if they start planting trees again, it's not going to be the same.”
For Gloria, she’s worried about how the housing stock in her community will recover. Many tornado-damaged buildings have sat relatively untouched since May.
“On San Francisco Avenue, there's a row of five houses where there were renters there, and the owners of those houses decided not to do anything with those properties. So those houses are just falling into further disrepair,” she said. “They probably won't be repaired, because if they had insurance, what a lot of people did was as landlords took the payout and walked away.”
Gloria also expressed concern about the city’s ability to distribute aid to the people who need it most.
“I saw some of the applications to get resources from the city, and I just kept thinking to myself, ‘Who qualifies for this funding?’ because the financial thresholds are really low. When I think of those landlords that took the insurance money, they probably wouldn't qualify for those funds, and then the tenant wouldn't qualify for those funds because it's not their house,” she said. “How are we really making this work? Who's benefiting from the funds that are being rolled out? And when will we see concrete examples of the city coming back and really recovering from this?”
As construction continues in their home, Gloria said she and her husband have made a point to share positive updates with their children.
“I try to consider them and make sure that they feel safe, make sure that they're feeling secure. … We don't want to frighten them or overburden them with adult issues. [Kevin and I are] working out things in the background, but we are being pretty open and honest with them as much as we can be with what's going on and how we're moving forward.”
For more with Gloria and Dylan Nolan, including the “well loved” item Dylan made sure to take with her after the tornado, 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. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
