ST. LOUIS – City, state and federal leaders provided updates on a number of topics during a news conference on Friday. 

Mayor Cara Spencer said building inspection teams are back out on the streets looking at homes and businesses after the storms. She said the number of structures hit by the tornado has come down since the early estimates. 

“As of 2:30 p.m. yesterday, we had 601 severe structural damages; those are the red tags. 502 moderate structural tags, that is the orange and yellow and 620 little to no hazards. These are the green tags,” Spencer said. 

City leaders said it has been more than 70 years since the St. Louis area has been hit with a level of destruction this large. 

“Because we haven’t been hit by such a tragedy in so long in this region, there is not a whole lot of expertise. So we’ve been taking crash courses because we’re going to become experts and I know because myself and the senator and several others have been on these calls to learn everything that we possibly can,” Congressman Wesley Bell said.

Bell and Senator Eric Schmitt spoke during Friday’s news conference about the communication Missouri legislators are having to get federal assistance moving quickly.

“My anticipation is that the governor, who is doing a great job, in the next day or two, when he has all that information from what FEMA did on the ground, will make another request for the major disaster declaration. We will quickly then have a letter in support of that and then it will be in front of the president,” Schmitt said.