The commissioner of the St. Louis City Emergency Management Agency, Sarah Russell, has been placed on paid administrative leave after failing to sound the warning siren during the tornadoes last Friday that killed five people.
Mayor Cara Spencer reported that there is now an active external investigation regarding the team’s failure to press the city’s alarm.
Capt. John Walk was named by Spencer as interim director of CEMA in the wake of Russell’s absence. The siren activation protocol was immediately changed, so the fire department is in charge of sounding the alarm now, according to the mayor’s office. The initial internal investigation proved there were “not just one serious issue, but multiple,” within CEMA, according to the statement.
“Within minutes, a massive weather hit the ground and was decimating our neighborhoods,” Spencer said at a press conference on Saturday. “In those minutes, between the warning and the time we were experiencing a massive weather event, there was a failure.”
The statement said that while the department knew about the storms ahead, the staff were all at a training and not at the location of the alarm-sounding button. After Russell contacted the fire department for assistance in sounding the alarm, Spencer said there was a “breakdown in communication,” mentioning that St. Louisans’ safety depended on the speedy notification about impending danger.
In the released audio of the phone call between the fire department and Russell, they can be heard debating the time the warning would be over, Russell relenting that she could be wrong about the severity of the situation.
“It was not exceptionally clear about whose roles or responsibilities were to do what,” Spencer said at the press conference.
Spencer said that, while she is thankful for Russell’s years of service, she needs to provide the best emergency management responsibility.
“Commissioner Russell has served our City for years and is a person of good will, but I cannot move on from this without providing accountability and ensuring that our emergency management is in trusted hands,” Spencer said.
The mayor revealed Wednesday that the button from the fire department was not working properly at the time of the storm. It was also proven during a test that same day that not all sirens in the St. Louis area sound properly, according to local paper KSDK.
JOSH HAWLEY DEMANDS LARGE-SCALE FEMA COVERAGE FOLLOWING DEADLY ST. LOUIS TORNADO
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist the affected community after he visited the area Monday. Hawley, who previously has voted against FEMA aid provisions for Hurricanes Milton and Helene, made his requests several times on the internet and during a Senate hearing. It is estimated by the St. Louis city assessor’s office that the over 5,000 buildings that sustained damage reached at least $1 billion in property damage, to which Hawley expressed the need for insurers to pay “in full.”
According to a fact sheet released by Spencer, St. Louis CEMA is to sound the sirens in cases of tornado warning for the city of St. Louis, a tier three “destructive” thunderstorm warning, for any portion of the city, or by order of the CEMA commissioner for other imminent threats. The day before the storm, CEMA had announced they would be replacing the siren system, which was last replaced in 1999, with an allocated budget of $3.9 million.