A new resource hub for people affected by the May 16 tornado in St. Louis opens Monday at Chaifetz Arena on St. Louis University's campus.
The Disaster Assistance Center will be a central hub for residents to connect with organizations providing vaccines, mental health care, legal assistance and job programs.
Residents are encouraged to book appointments to receive help. The center will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 9-12, 16-18 and 23-26. Uber is offering a code for free rides to and from the center when it is open.
“As we move from responding to helping residents put their lives back together, it is critical that a one-stop place like the Disaster Assistance Center makes it as convenient as possible for residents to get the resources they need on the road to recovery,” Mayor Cara Spencer said in a statement.
Debris pickup changes
Along opening the new center, the city is altering the way it handles debris cleanup.
The Missouri National Guard had been running debris drop-off sites at multiple St. Louis Public Schools buildings near the hardest-hit areas of north city, but those sites closed Sunday night.
On Sunday morning, National Guard teams were busy as residents and volunteers dropped off final loads of debris, including tree branches and piles of building materials from homes ripped apart by the EF3 tornado.
At Farragut Elementary School just south of Fairground Park, north city resident Terry Gray brought a pickup truck full of branches and other tree debris from his yard.
“This is about the fourth load that I have carried to this station, and we have to get rid of it,” Gray said. “I'm not like a lot of people. They'll leave it there and then next week, they'll be dumping it on a vacant lot. So I'm trying to get rid of everything that I can now.”
At the Marshall School building, closed since 2009, Kevin Williams unloaded a rental car full of parts of his roof and tree debris to leave with the Missouri National Guard.
“I got tired of looking at it in my own yard,” Williams said. “I'm waiting for the insurance company, so I got my friend, and we decided to do what we could at my property to get it looking a little bit better.”
Williams’ home and car were damaged by the tornado in the Ville neighborhood. He has been staying in an Airbnb rental, paid for by his insurance, and will soon be moving into an apartment because his house is uninhabitable. The tornado destroyed about half of his roof and took out layers of brick from the top of the house. Recent thunderstorms compounded the damage, as rain fell into the home and soaked the drywall.
Now that the National Guard sites have closed, city officials are asking residents to put tornado debris along the curb for city crews and contractors to pick up.
Williams is skeptical about the plan, especially because he has already seen debris and trash pile up in his neighborhood.
“We'll see,” he said. “You know, it's the City of St. Louis. Nothing moves fast. We'll see what happens.”
Gray, with the truck, is also pessimistic about how curbside debris pickup will go.
“It'll be there for ages,” Gray said. “I hate to say it, but, you know, just like the potholes, they'll be there until the next storm.”
A city spokesperson said the National Guard will spend the final two days of its service cleaning up the debris drop-off sites. Gov. Mike Kehoe deployed about 40 Guard members to St. Louis to assist with storm cleanup for two weeks beginning late last month.
