Lessons Learned from the St. Louis Tornado

St. Charles County personnel helped the City of St. Louis respond to the deadly May 16 tornado that claimed five lives and damaged or destroyed 7,000 buildings in the city.

Rick Meister, the Director of Building & Code Enforcement for Community Development, coordinated a team of more than 100 architects, engineers and building officials who surveyed the damage.

"This was a top-tier, real-world experience that you can only get from a real scenario," Meister says.

To map out the damage, the team used a software that created a grid map using drone footage of the aftermath, allowing personnel to see the destruction from a bird's eye view.

"The biggest thing we need to do is a plan with the technology and training, so that if a disaster happened tomorrow, we wouldn't need a lot of time to get up to speed," Meister says.

Meister says St. Charles County's modern building codes-with rebar and steel reinforcement-are more tornado-resistant than many of the unreinforced brick homes that toppled in the city. Still, he says it's humbling to see the force of nature.

"You can never fully be prepared, because every tornado is different," Meister says.

Jani Albright, Director of St. Charles County Regional Emergency Management, also helped the City of St. Louis with its tornado aftermath and came away with a fresh appreciation for the St. Charles County outdoor warning siren system.

"We have multiple redundancies to make sure the sirens will get activated," Albright says.

The County's network of 144 outdoor sirens is checked electronically every week and sounded once a month. When it's time to hit the button during a real tornado warning, Albright says there are layers of people who can activate the sirens from the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) or the 911 Dispatch Center across the hall. Also, the sirens can be activated remotely by Emergency Management personnel on their handheld radios.

Among the lessons learned in the city's response, Albright says it's important to have department heads present in the EOC to ensure a quick response.

For example, she says someone from the Finance Department with purchasing authority might be needed to buy tarps and plywood to patch damaged buildings, or to buy flashlights and other field supplies needed right away.

Another take-home for Albright is the importance of training with department heads including the Highway Department, Building & Code Enforcement, and the Department of Public Health.

"Definitely more section-specific training is needed," Albright says.

County personnel with Public Health and the Parks & Recreation Department also worked in the city after the May tornado.