The City of St Louis experienced a life altering weather event May 16, 2025, when a tornado took five lives and wreaked havoc over Clayton, the Central West End, north St. Louis and Metro East.
Alderwoman Laura Keyes was not being hyperbolic when she described it as “our Katrina.” In this moment of shock, angst and uncertainty the question at the core this crisis, is: What do we do next?
The answer can only be provided by Mayor Cara Spencer, Board of Alderman President Megan Green and Comptroller (who comprise the Board of Estimate & Apportionment,) and the 14 alderpersons.
These are the 18 people chosen by the people of St. Louis to speak for them and to exercise their best judgement on the peoples’ behalf.
It’s a duty they can’t avoid and a responsibility they can’t transfer. But this isn’t something they can do alone; this will require the cooperation and support of the entire St. Louis community. More to the point the mayor, with the support of the Board of Aldermen, is the only person in position to provide the leadership to organize the long-term civic and governmental effort that will be required to see this through.
The modern American political culture has developed an attraction to nongovernmental solutions to all civic problems.
On the right, it’s the blind faith in the infallibility of markets. On the left, it’s the belief there’s a nonprofit organizational solution for every problem.
I’ve yet to find in research a civilization without a government. Whatever the shape of this recovery endeavor, city government must be responsible and accountable for both day-to-day and long-term results.
You’re probably looking at some quasi-governmental hybrid. What will be required of us is fortitude and patience. Recovering from this is going to be extraordinarily difficult and will take a long time; think years, not months.
The quote “There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” is a metaphorical way of saying that a large or overwhelming problem can be solved by breaking it down into smaller, manageable steps.
The tornado has created two major recovery problems. One involves people and the other involves property.
Using insurance as an organizing variable, you can divide people and businesses victimized by the storm into three distinct categories that may facilitate organizing the recovery effort.
Category one is families and businesses that were fully insured.
The second category would be businesses and families that are under-insured.
The third category are families and businesses that are uninsured.
Insurance, or lack thereof, is a constant that allows you to aggregate families and businesses that have similar needs. While everybody has the same problem, they have different circumstances, therefore require different solutions.
You should think about physical recovery as something that happens in stages. Stage one is stabilizing and mitigating the condition of families and businesses that have been directly affected by the storm. This is the stage we’re in now.
The Herculean effort of the city, state, contractors and the larger St. Louis community should be commended. While this effort is critical at this stage of the crisis, it’s not a solution to a problem. This is lifesaving emergency first aid until you can get someone to the hospital.
Stage two is the interim stage. It’s a function of circumstances and desires of the affected families and businesses. Families and businesses have to get on with their lives until they have resolved their situation.
Assuming they want to and can return to their homes and businesses, what do they do in the interim. If they can’t or don’t want to return, what’s the plan until they have made other arrangements.
This is something the city has to get right. If it gets it wrong, the population exodus accelerates. People won’t leave because of the tornado; they’ll leave because of what didn’t happen after the tornado. Stage two will become a new normal we’ll all have to adjust to.
The third stage could be the most complicated, most difficult and will take the longest. What is the plan and strategy for restoring those neighborhoods that were devastated by the storm?
Many St. Louis American readers live in or adjacent to impacted areas. I, and others, must understand and process the difficulty and complexity of this challenge.
It is doable. It will be a marathon and not a sprint, I’ll leave you with this African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
St. Louis American columnist Mike Jones is a former St. Louis alderman and senior advisor to the St. Louis County Executive