11th Ward Alderwoman Laura Keys arrived home Friday afternoon minutes after a possible tornado roared through her neighborhood, leaving behind death, injury and property damage.
“It’s horrible,” said Keys following a Saturday morning press briefing at Kingshighway and Delmar.
“My house is damaged, all the houses on the block are damaged.”
She said St. Louis then showed its spirit.
“I started clearing debris and next thing I know 40 people had joined me.”
This dramatic scenario played throughout the city’s northside, which is littered with tree limbs, severely damaged buildings, homes and churches, and widespread damage unseen for decades in the city.
At the corner of Union and Minerva, a tree was upended from the root and intertwined with metal of a concrete streetlight pole so tightly it resembled a rope of licorice. The stunning byproduct of tornadoes that passed through parts of North St. Louis and other parts of the city and county. The wood, metal and concrete pole that rested beneath resembled a giant sculpture. Its final resting place was in front of – and partially on top of – a stately, aged home.
“That was my mother-in-law’s house,” Tyrone Johnson said as he saw this reporter stopping to capture a cell phone image.
Just a block down on Page and Union – and other streets in every direction – traffic was at a standstill.
Johnson’s home, located four doors down from where the tree and pole sculpture landed, looked unscathed from the front. The back of his house was a different story.
“Don’t get too close,” he warned. He pointed to downed powerlines with exposed wires and trees. They collapsed on top of his parking spot and throughout his backyard.
Johnson was calm – pleasant even – as he talked about how he learned his neighborhood was hit.
He was at a hospital in South City undergoing routine testing. His wife called and asked him to head home and check on the house.
“She said it was a mess over by us,” Johnson said. “When I was coming from the hospital, Forest Park, Lindell all of that was tore up. All those streets are blocked off because antennas came down and bricks flew down on those streets. Cars looked like they were blown into other vehicles. Windows were blown out – it was a mess.”
During the Saturday morning press conference, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Tracy confirmed that five people had been killed – four on the city’s northside and one near Carondelet Park near South Grand in the Holly Hills neighborhood.
Friday afternoon after two confirmed tornadoes touched down in the metropolitan St. Louis area, buildings were damaged and an estimated 90,000 people remained without power as of Saturday morning.
Mayor Cara Spencer, who called it “one of the worst storms in St. Louis history,” said there was “extensive damage” with the main damage being from Kingshighway and Delmar north to the city line in St. Louis. There was also widespread damage in the county.
As Keys said, neighbors immediately began helping neighbors, according to the mayor.
“The work the community is doing is amazing,” said Spencer.
Tracy said a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will remain enforced to protect property and keep streets clear as trees are removed and damaged assessed.
“If you have not heard from someone, call 911. If you see something, say something,” he said.
Tracy said that between 2:40 and 7 p.m., 334 calls for service came to the police.
“You see disasters like this on the TV in other places, but you don’t think about it happening here in the city,” said Johnson. “St. Louis has been so lucky because whenever a big storm comes, it seems to go around us. It is a sight to see. You couldn’t have predicted this.”
The roof was ripped off of The Harlem Tap Room, a staple lounge in The Ville. Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church – on Labadie and Marcus, near St. Louis Avenue – had its roof collapse inward.
“People were driving on the sidewalk at St. Louis Avenue near North Taylor to avoid fallen debris,” said Kimberly Kendle Roberson. Her normal commute home from work in Baden to her home in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood became a nearly two-hour obstacle course to avoid downed trees and debris.
“Marcus ended up being blocked off at St. Louis Avenue,” Roberson said. “I had to zig zag my way across the side streets from St. Louis Avenue, near Cora and Taylor until I ended up at Sarah and Vandeventer.”
As he discussed his ordeal, Johnson’s granddaughter Anitrus Davis came to check on him.
“I’m just so blessed that nobody physically was hurt,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of people in much worse shape than we are.”
He urged patience as the region prepares for a long road to restoration.
“Help your neighbors,” Johnson said. “This is going to take time to get things back in order.”
Davis was engaged with other family members, providing updates by way of her cell phone as Johnson shared his harrowing experience driving home.
But she paused the conversation to offer a parting word, just before she walked away with her grandfather to fully survey the damage to his home.
“Pray for our city,” Davis said.