answered uh open it up to some
questions. Just keep in mind things are
still changing. So, we may not have all
the answers yet, but but be assured that
we're working to collect them. And um I
think that by the the show of of the
people up here today, I think everybody
can can get the feeling that this is a
team effort uh with Highway Patrol,
county police has reached out, county
government's reached out, and we're
incredibly thankful for that. We'll open
it up for some questions. We'll give it
five, six minutes. Is that okay? Yeah.
One of the questions elaborate on why
the sirens did not go off. A lot of
residents have been asking about that.
We are going to look into that. Our
priority right
now, please. Thank you. Sorry. Um, we
have been focused on life safety and we
are continuing to focus on life safety
right now, but that will be looked into.
How many sirens didn't go off? What you
um that is still something that that's
being looked into. Some, but you don't
really know the extent. I don't have the
information right now. No. As I said,
we're we're focusing on the the ongoing
life safety issues yesterday. Was there
any issues with the testing done
yesterday that could have indicated
potential issues for today? No. And and
that testing was for engineers. Um but
again, we didn't see any significant
issues with that. We tested the sirens,
I believe, five or six times um over the
course of the afternoon and they
performed as they should have. What are
the details? Cara Spencer, a brand new
St. Louisis city mayor as of April 15,
2025. Her birth date is September 11th,
1978. She hasn't been a mayor for 2
months yet, and she has already failed
the city of St. Louis. Cara, you and
your staff were asked a simple question
by the reporter, which was, "Why wasn't
the siren going off to warn everyone in
the neighborhood of the tornado prior to
the tornado coming?" However, your staff
answered with a brush off, which was
we'll look into it. That means we don't
have the answer or we don't want to give
you the answer. What are the details on
the curve? Who does that affect and how
long will it be in effect? Is it all of
districts five and six or just part of
It is all of districts five and six.
Yes. And again, uh we're not This is not
looking we're not looking to to to
really uh be harshanded on this. This is
just an issue, a matter of public safety
to try to keep folks at home. No, Cara.
No. Public safety is informing the
people who elected you as of why the
tornado siren did not work. I would ask
you, is there any way you can police
district five and six? Right. But for
people who don't know police districts,
what can we do? North of Forest Park.
North of Forest Park more or less in
within the city limits. And is that
everybody or just kids or It's
everybody. We're asking everybody to
stay home. Okay. Until what time in the
morning? Till 6:00 in the morning. 6:00
in the morning. Could you give us uh the
the circumstances surrounding the deaths
of the five victims? I I can't do that
right now. I can't I can't say anything
about the individuals who've lost their
life today. Not yet. And I had asked you
this question earlier. What can citizens
do to help? Right now, the most
important thing citizens can do to help
is to stay off their phones unless
absolutely necessary and stay out of the
affected area unless absolutely
necessary. Want to clear the roads for
first responders and we want to clear
the lines for those experiencing
emergencies.
Not going to happen, Cara. Not going to
happen. So, basically, let me get this
right. The average person in the city of
St. Louis, especially in north city of
St. Louis, um, you don't have a house
and you have a curfew now by car from
900 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the morning and
you can't use your phone unless it's
absolutely necessary, which is
subjective. Good luck with that. Jerson,
can you you said you talked about the
mapping of of what you think the path
was. What what what did that look like
to you? Looks like the uh the area
touchdown the original touchdown was in
Clayton and we did have a report of a
possible tornado on the ground and then
it skipped a couple blocks rich into
Richmond Heights and then c clipped the
corner of Forest Park continued I'll say
eastward across a river just outside of
Fallon Park. Okay. Um, we use an AI AI
process, if you will, to determine path
and ground effects. So, we got a pretty
good idea, which helps us set up our
grids and how we're going to search
areas, which is what we're doing now for
the second time. Um, so we'll continue
that through the night. Um, path
approximately, I'm going to say three
blocks wide, you know, but there is
collateral damage on the outside of the
actual path that we checked. Uh we we
did do an aerial reconnaissance of the
area and as the mayor said the there is
very significant damage because of this
storm. This is this is a very
destructive storm and like you said
we've got about 5,000 parcels that have
been damaged. We have two more
questions. You you mentioned about a
river by fell apart. What did you mean
by that? I didn't hear you. You said it
it skipped a river or something back.
No, it it after it hit Clayton, it
skipped into Richmond Heights and
skipped again and then came into Forest
Park, then went east and crossed the
river into Illinois. Oh, okay. Oh, okay.
I got you. Oh, yeah. Okay. Sure. So,
while the tornado was skipping and
flipping and bending corners and going
over water, why didn't anyone in your
team get the siren to working to alarm
the people in the neighborhood about the
tornado? If you seen the tornado do all
that, why didn't anyone get the siren to
working? People, people, people, people.
You are
taxpayers. You pay
taxes. Your tax money goes to these
components and devices to
work. These components and devices,
these
sirens that alert you that a tornado is
coming.
If it doesn't work, then your tax money
was useless. Listen, listen, people,
people. Once you get your life back
together and you pick up the pieces of
the rubble from the tornado that tore
down your house,
right? It's time for you to think about
classaction lawsuits, okay? Against the
city of St. Louis, right? for not giving
you the service that you paid
for. Yes, you can sue the city of St.
Louis for that easily. The admission of
the siren not working was right in front
of your face on the news clip. I mean,
the amount of unacceptable foolishness
on this news clip is phenomenal. I mean,
you got the mayor's staff telling you
that they don't know why the siren
didn't go off. And then you got the
mayor saying, even though you don't have
a home and y'all alone, don't use your
phone. And then you got the chief of the
firefighter department letting you know
that he seen and witnessed a tornado
skip and dip and flip and turn a corner
and go over water. However, he didn't
think
to find someone to get the siren on to
warn the neighborhood. I mean, this is
is foolery.
I mean, this is the exact reason why the
state of Missouri took over the police
in the city of St. Louis. This very same
city of St. Louis, the police are taken
over right now by the state of Missouri.
See,
and I wouldn't be surprised if in the
future it's way more than the police
department because these individuals on
this news clip should not be running a
town. I mean, they don't have what it
takes to run a town. They're they're
incompetent. And the mayor takes the
most responsibility.
It's truly unacceptable for the mayor to
not give a reason as to why the siren
did not go off. That's unacceptable.
That's lawsuit worthy. And it came back.
No, no, it kept going. It kept going.
Chief, describe the process that's going
on tonight. What are you doing? Who all
was involved? How many people uh are
involved in this? Right now, we've got
appro approximately 500 first responders
in that area right now. It's part of a
what's called a region C mutual aid
division. Uh we train together, uh we
practice together, and what they're
using now is a system where each team
member has basically a cell phone that's
linked to a piece of software. As they
inspect a building, they have statuses
that they provide, whether the building
uh total destruction, partially
collapsed, and they can describe how bad
the collapse is. If they happen to find
somebody in that facility, they can hit
on a button and say, "We have two people
who are going to house in place, or we
need an individual picked up by an
ambulance." That's being monitored by
the command post at this time. So as
they find uh circumstances that need
additional assistance that's relayed
back to the command post automatically
equipment is sent out. Each team
consists of four to five members with a
police officer and we've got 17 teams in
the field right now and they'll be going
house to house all night long.
One more question for Sean. Lieutenant
Colonel Griezmann, are you concerned
about the potential for looting this
evening in some of the areas that are
affected? So, we've certainly had that
conversation and we've certainly have
have plans in place to address that and
so we've used um officers to assist with
the fire department, but we also have
plans for looting high visibility and
undercover patrols as we move through
the evening. So, okay guys, so real
quick and I think one other thing is
that we still have other people that
have been hurt in this um and so we are
working closely along with fire
department and the hospitals as you can
imagine during a mass casualty
situation.
uh victims are going to different
hospitals. So, we have to start working
on collecting that. We will work to do
that to provide you um that number
tomorrow during the update. But I do
want to mention one thing about the
curfews. Even in our command post, we
have nails on the ground and somebody
could get hurt. Uh and so the curfew is
to protect people and then also protect
their property and and that'll be in
effect until 6:00 a.m. We will provide
another update tomorrow. Guys, a large
number of people hurt or doz Yeah. No
any estimate on we know that several
people have been transported to the
hospital. Thank you guys very much.
Thanks guys. Thank you. Thank you. Will
it be All right. So that was there isn't
one way around this. Not one way around
this. The mayor has blood on her hands.
The mayor is responsible for the deaths
of those
individuals who passed
away or were severely impacted by that
tornado due to the siren not
working. Due to the siren not working.
That is the responsibility of the mayor.
Did you know the mayor is responsible
for all of those individuals on that
panel to for them to function properly
and and for the the business to be
smooth, the mayor is responsible for
that. That's a responsibility of a
mayor. And if those individuals are not
functioning properly that are
authorative
uh figures in inside of the government,
the mayor has a duty to get rid of them
or discipline them. Yeah, I recommend
you sue. Get a civil
lawsuit.
However, I'm out.