“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>On Friday evening, a severe thunderstorm produced two tornadoes in the St. Louis metropolitan area – one was the strongest tornado St. Louis County has seen in 44 years, according to the National Weather Service.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The more damaging twister tore a 22-mile-long path of destruction from west to east, hitting North St. Louis County and Madison County, Illinois. More than 2,000 St. Louis-area homes were damaged, and more than 100 are uninhabitable, according to city officials in the affected areas.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>On Friday, Gov. Jay Nixon signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in Missouri. Due to damage, a Ferguson elementary school has closed for the rest of the year, and some city hall buildings went without power for days.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The tornado reached its peak, EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, as it tracked through the community of Bridgeton, just west of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Amazingly, no fatalities or serious injuries have been reported – only many near-death experiences. “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>‘There ain’t no upstairs’ “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>That’s where former St. Louis Police Chief Ron Henderson was at home with is wife Peggy. All that’s left of their retirement home is the kitchen tile and some carpet where the rooms once were. Their home and two others on Beaverton Drive were completely flattened.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“If I had not been in the basement, I would not be here,” Henderson told
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>The American
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>That night, both Ron and Peggy were in the finished portion of their basement watching the news on television. A meteorologist on Channel 5 came on and announced, “If you live in the area of (Interstates) 270 and 70, it’s going to hit you in two minutes.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I’m not thinking tornado, still – I’m thinking rain,” the former chief said said.
“At that moment the power goes out. I thought,
‘Uh oh.’ Then it was a like a freight train. Out of instinct, I
grabbed Peggy. I threw her down, I got on top of her and I said,
‘Hold on.’ Then complete hell broke loose. It was a noise I will
never ever forget.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The water pipes and windows in the basement busted. After about two minutes, it went quiet, Ron said, and he walked upstairs.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“All I could see was sky,” he said. “I told Peggy, ‘There ain’t no upstairs.’ Pardon my English, but that was best way I could describe it. The good Lord chose to let me see another day. This is just stuff. We will recover from that.” “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Path of destruction “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The tornado initially touched down along the northern edge of Creve Coeur Lake at approximately 7:55 p.m. It traveled nearly due east at about 40 mph, and intensified as it entered Maryland Heights, where it damaged 1,200 homes to some extent, city officials said.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The municipality has a 12 percent black population, but none of the areas that were hardest hit had substantial African-American populations, said Sara Berry, communications manager for the City of Maryland Heights.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>From there, the tornado paralleled Interstate 70 through the community of St. Ann, and then took aim directly on Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Many of the large windows in the main terminal building were blown out or damaged by flying debris, and a large section of roof was peeled from Concourse C, according to the weather service.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Although the vast majority of people inside the airport were evacuated to lower levels and to interior rooms before the tornado hit, five people were treated and released from area hospitals for injuries due to flying debris.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>By making use of its vacant terminals, the airport was up and running within 24 hours after leading the national news on Easter Sunday, when the airport was ominously reported as “closed indefinitely.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The tornado exited the airport and headed northeast into the City of Berkeley, crossing Interstate 170 between Airport Road and Scudder Avenue. Had it kept a straight path east, it would have run right into Kinloch. “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>Grace of God “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>Mayor of Kinloch Keith Conway said his town was spared by the grace of God.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“One side of the street is Kinloch, and the other side is Berkeley,” Conway said. “There were just a few trees and knocked lines down over here. Some of us don’t have electric still, but it destroyed a lot of the homes in Berkeley. We tried to go over and help our neighbors.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>Along Fourth Avenue, residents experienced severe damage, especially at the Garfield Avenue and Hancock Avenue intersections where a vacant house and several homes lost their entire roof structures.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The storm knocked out power, phone service and internet access at Berkeley’s city hall, said Mayor Kyra Watson.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Many large trees fell on homes in the neighborhoods south of Airport Road. The tornado crossed North Florissant Road where it caused extensive roof damage to the Newger Materials building and the First Baptist Church of Ferguson. Across the road, a Little Caesars Restaurant lost its entire roof.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The tornado then continued through neighborhoods along and just the north of Hereford Avenue/Chambers Road toward West Florissant Road. “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Storm closes schools “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>On this path, it partially removed the roof at Griffith Elementary School, located at 200 Day Dr. in Ferguson. Those 330 students,
“color: black;”>94 percent of whom are black, studying at two of other facilities. K-2 students will attend Johnson-Wabash Elementary, and third through sixth graders will go to Ferguson Middle School.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Airport Elementary and Central Elementary, also in the Ferguson-Florissant School District, canceled school on Monday because the buildings had no electricity. Airport has about 290 students, 99 percent of them African-American, and Central has about 300 students, 91 percent black.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Our focus is on not disrupting school schedule,” said Nancy Keyser, assistant superintendent of the district’s communications department. “We had tremendous amount of help from lots of employees in order to enable Griffith students to not miss a day of school.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Riverview
Gardens
School District
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>also closed Monday due to power outages.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Ferguson
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>city officials said 621 Ferguson homes were affected by the storm. Fifty-two homes were heavily damaged and 72 moderately damaged.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>After hitting the elementary school, the tornado widened to one-quarter of a mile, damaging trees and some homes on both sides of Chambers Road. Along the entire path from Berkeley to Dellwood, power poles were snapped and trees knocked down. The damage continued southeast of Chambers and W. Florissant Avenue.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In Bellefontaine Neighbors, just south of Chambers Road, the tornado removed the roofs from three homes and damaged other homes.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>It then traveled eastward south of Chambers road, crossing the Mississippi River approximately two miles south of Interstate 270. At least one hundred homes were damaged in Illinois. “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>‘Whim of the weather’ “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The tornado was one of five that hit the eastern-central Missouri area overall that night, said Scott Truett, senior forecaster at the local National Weather Service office.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“It seems like on the active years, some areas are more active than others,” he said. “This year, the most active belt has been St. Louis. It is kind of the whim of the weather pattern where the most active storms occur.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Red Cross St. Louis officials said 600 trained volunteers were contacted prior to the storm hitting. U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s emergency assessment teams were on the ground Monday, and the preliminary damage assessments began Tuesday in St. Louis County, at the airport and in St. Charles County.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The FEMA assessment is the key first step in helping Nixon compile his request for a Presidential Disaster Declaration, Clay said. If approved, that would open the pipeline for federal disaster funding for individuals and local businesses, in the form of grants and low-interest loans.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“St. Louisans are pulling together to help our neighbors, and we’re showing why this is such a wonderful community,” Clay said.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I also want to thank all of the emergency responders who acted with such skill and bravery in this disaster. We are truly blessed that there was no loss of life, and we will rebuild our community – of that, I have no doubt.”
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>For more information and direct emergency assistance, visit
“http://www.redcrossstl.org/”>www.redcrossstl.org Red Cross St. Louis Disaster Relief headquarters at 314-516-2800. The Red Cross opened a community shelter for emergency housing at the Maryland Heights Community Center, 2344 McKelvey Road, Maryland Heights, Mo 63043. Additional emergency resources can be accessed by calling the United Way at 2-1-1.
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