ST. LOUIS – Heavy rain and flooding hit St. Louis overnight, complicating recovery efforts from last week’s deadly tornado.
The storm caused high water on I-64 westbound near Forest Park, where crews had to assist drivers through the flooded highway. Tornado sirens sounded in St. Louis County, but there were no reported injuries or touchdowns.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer admitted that the tornado sirens in the city failed to sound properly during last Friday’s tornado due to human error.
“In those minutes between the warning and the time we were experiencing a massive weather event, there was a failure. A human failure. A failure in protocol to get the sirens up and running to let the community know,” Spencer said.
Pastor Dennis Sims of Greater Progressive Missionary Baptist Church expressed disappointment over the siren failure.
“I was a little disappointed because we depend on it,” Sims said. “If the system is old and dilapidated, we need to rebuild that because right now we never thought a tornado would hit an urban area.”
Debris from last Friday’s tornado remains scattered across Euclid Avenue between Page and MLK, with significant damage to multiple homes. The heavy rain Monday night has hindered cleanup efforts.
Funnel clouds were reported in Jefferson and Washington counties, but there are no reports of extensive damage or injuries in those areas.
Angela Nelson, Director of Missouri’s Department of Commerce and Insurance, will visit the area Tuesday to meet with storm victims and insurance carriers. Nelson will be at a State Farm temporary response site in Maplewood at 11 a.m. and at the Allstate mobile claims center in Hazelwood at 1 p.m.
As recovery continues, local officials are addressing the failures in emergency protocols, while state representatives work to ensure that storm victims receive the support they need.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KTVI. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KTVI staff before being published.