(St. Louis Public Radio) – On Enright Avenue, a two-story house – built in 1903 – is finally coming down. The EF3 tornado that slammed north St. Louis on May 16, 2025, hit the Academy neighborhood hard, essentially decapitating the Victorian home. In seconds, the storm turned the tall building into a short one-story structure.
As the operator of the yellow excavator uses the bucket to bop the top of a century-old chimney, the wall crumbles. As the rubble falls, clouds of brown-gray dust rise into the air.
The construction crew has brought equipment for this purpose. A truck parked on the curb holds water, and a worker continually wets the site using a heavy-duty hose. Before demolition began, workers soaked the site to cut down on what experts call “fugitive dust.”
“Even as we’re loading trucks, we have to keep it wet, because that prevents the dust,” said construction worker Kristie Jenkins.
But some dust during demolition is unavoidable, especially when houses are old and the weather is dry. Even with preparation, fine particles linger in the air, potentially causing health issues for the people who still live and work in tornado’s path.
“There’s truly no way to prevent any dust [from escaping],” she said. “But if he wasn’t spraying, you probably wouldn’t even be able to see the machine with all the dust.”
City, state and federal contractors are slated to demolish hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed by the tornado in the coming months. Some were owned by residents; others were vacant buildings. But no matter who is paying for the demolitions, residents are in for a dusty summer, and experts say neighbors should take precautions.
Long-awaited demos
A year after the storm, the city has demolished around 100 homes, according to a tracker maintained by STL Recovers. Earlier this month, Mayor Cara Spencer announced that 120 homes would come down in the next few months with the help of state-apportioned recovery dollars.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Land Reclamation Agency, the Missouri Department of Economic Development and private property owners are also demolishing buildings and removing debris. City officials estimate up to 1,600 buildings will need to come down. Around 80% of those properties were vacant or condemned prior to the storm.
Hariel Johnson, whose house abuts the Enright Avenue demolition site, said she was thrilled when crews began tearing down the house next door, which had been vacant for years.
“When the storm came, God went on ahead and said, ‘I’ll help you,’ and he just knocked it on down for us,” she said. “He kept going on, but I was blessed. We were blessed.”
Johnson said her house lost a few windows, but she was not hurt.
Since then, she’s noticed more dust around the neighborhood. Johnson, who has asthma, said she doesn’t want to wear a mask because it interferes with her breathing.
“I don’t get out as much, but when I do go, dust is everywhere,” she said. “We don’t know what’s in everything they knock down.”
Health effects
Because of the dust and debris kicked up by tornadoes and subsequent demolitions, people with asthma and other respiratory conditions may face a higher risk of getting sick, experts said.
For people with healthy respiratory systems, the dust may be little more than a nuisance. But demolitions can trigger flare-ups in people who have pulmonary disease or other underlying conditions, said Jay Turner, an environmental science professor at Washington University who is on a team studying the air quality in the tornado’s path.
“For people who are predisposed – maybe they have asthma or emphysema – this could exacerbate or magnify that condition,” he said.
The materials inside century-old homes may also pose risks, said Rachel Sanford of the American Lung Association. The buildings can contain chemicals such as arsenic, nickel or lead and materials such as fiberglass and asbestos that could damage lungs when people breathe them in.
“A lot of these particles are really, really small,” she said. “They travel very deep into the lungs when they’re inhaled.”
Containing dust is a “direct concern” for the city and Spencer, said St. Louis Chief Recovery Officer Julian Nicks, who added people around demolition sites should take precautions.
“That includes saying keep your windows closed, do not watch it from outside, and if you are, make sure you’re wearing a proper mask,” he said.
Residents should also respect barriers around construction zones, vacuum indoor spaces to remove settled dust and change air filters more often than usual, city officials said.
Rules on the books
Most dust mitigation measures require keeping sites wet, Turner said. City press releases stated crews will “apply continuous water suppression throughout the demolition to control dust.”
St. Louis has rules intended to limit the spread of dust during demolition work. Much of the guidance focuses on wetting demolition sites to keep dust from spreading.
According to city spokesman Rasmus Jorgensen, either misting fans or large hoses are required for demolitions to contain dust.
Nicks said a professional contractor oversees all the crews working on recovery office-funded demolitions. Workers also remove asbestos-containing material from houses before demolition begins.
The city is working to buy more equipment for dust suppression, including more meters that attach to fire hydrants.
He added that if residents see construction crews violating dust-containment procedures, they should take photos and alert the city through its 311 helpline.
“We have strong laws around finding and taking demo licenses of people who don’t actively follow those tactics,” he said.
In the future
In the next few weeks, Turner’s group will attach about a dozen gray boxes to utility poles and other sites around the tornado-affected neighborhoods to monitor airborne particles. The devices record how many particles are in the air and how big they are.
“If there’s numerous demolitions happening every day, the question is: What is that cumulative effect?” Turner said.
The city is also recruiting a team to monitor asbestos and lead in the air.
Turner and other scientists hope the monitoring effort will provide a clearer picture of what lingers in the air after demolitions.
“[It’s an] exact test for what’s in the air and checking to make sure they’re below best practice standards set by the EPA,” Nicks said.
If either team finds high levels of pollution, the city could remedy its demolition standards.
“This is a top priority,” he said. “We still want to move with speed on demolition, but we don’t want to do it at the risk of public health.”
Published with permission as part of a content sharing partnership between The St. Louis American and St. Louis Public Radio. Edited for space.
This story originally appeared here.