St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said the city may be able to make $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds available for tornado recovery.
Although the city has already assigned its $500 million to specific projects, not all of that money has been spent.
Spencer said at a briefing Tuesday she had asked departments to evaluate their project lists and find places they could “pivot and have some application here under their obligation to address some of the specific and urgent needs we have right now as a result of the tornado.”
The money would not be available for expenses like debris removal or overtime for city workers.
Sound the sirens
Also Tuesday, Spencer said she officially put the St. Louis Fire Department in charge of pressing the button to set off the outdoor warning sirens for severe weather.
“I have full confidence moving forward that the Fire Department will be deploying the tornado sirens reliably, effectively and immediately to protect the community,” Spencer said of the executive order.
She added that a new system, for which the city has allocated $3.6 million, will be automated.
“Within a year, there will not be a need to have a human being press the button,” Spencer said.
Spencer said Monday that “human failure” led the city to not sound the sirens before the tornado touched down on Friday. But she said there was no way to know whether the sirens would have saved lives.
Getting the lights on
Ameren Missouri said that as of Tuesday, power had been restored to 90% of customers who had experienced power outages on Friday. But getting service back to the remaining 10%, about 23,000 customers, may take a while.
The utility had at least 350 poles damaged by the storm, and crews are finding additional damage every day, said Amanda Brittingham, Ameren senior director overseeing the North Metro operating center. She said more than 2,300 workers are on the ground, and more are expected to arrive.
Building assessments
In a post on her official Facebook page, Spencer said the building department is not currently condemning buildings that were damaged in the storm.
The city is working to assess all of the nearly 4,400 buildings that were impacted in some way by the storm. Each will be tagged to indicate whether they are safe to access. But people will not be removed from buildings that have been deemed “not safe to enter or occupy.”
“Our top priority is helping people stay safely in their homes wherever possible,” the mayor said.
