ST. LOUIS — A tornado tore through St. Louis last week, leaving major damage in the Academy Sherman Park neighborhood and displacing residents.
The tornado caused extensive damage to nearly every structure on Kensington Avenue, with one homeowner losing her dream home and a lifetime of memories. The woman and her wife had purchased the home in 2018 as a rehab project but now face an uncertain future without homeowners insurance.
“This is unreal. This is unreal,” said the homeowner.
The homeowner said that she also lost many personal items, including her son’s handprints and family pictures that were once displayed on the fireplace mantel. Despite the destruction, a moment of kindness emerged when a stranger helped recover a family keepsake—an urn containing her sister’s ashes.
State, federal, and local emergency management agencies are currently assessing the damage, which is estimated to exceed $1.5 billion. Many residents, like the homeowner, are staying with family as they navigate the aftermath of the storm.
As St. Louis begins to recover from the tornado’s impact, residents remain hopeful that good things will happen despite the challenges they face. Emergency management efforts continue to provide support and assess the full extent of the damage.
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.