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The EF3 tornado that struck St. Louis was estimated to have damaged 5,000 buildings, and the damages will exceed $1.6 billion. It was reported that 5 individuals died from the tragedy and 38 were injured with winds up to 150mph that slammed north and west of downtown St. Louis.

St. Louis Mayor, Cara Spencer, explains, “Eight miles of pure destruction, at times a mile wide,” She continues, “We’re talking about thousands of buildings, thousands of families are being displaced.

The city was waiting disaster declaration from the governor’s office, the first step to getting federal assistance, and U.S. Senator, Josh Hawley, expressed frustration over the federal response to the deadly storm.

The disaster protocols put in place in 2021 were not followed, possibly preventing sirens from being activated to warn residents about the tornado. It was not clear whose responsibility it was to alert the community, but the fire department will be alerting emergency’s moving forward.

At least four tornadoes were confirmed in Oklahoma and Nebraska in Monday night’s storm. In Oklahoma, at least 10 homes were destroyed and multiple buildings were damaged, including a fire station that was wiped out.

All of South central Illinois was under tornado watch. As the storm system passed through Clinton County, there was a severe thunder storm warning. The Salem water plant reported 1.2 inches of rain. Centralia water plant reported .64 inches of rain.

Information from this article came from the associate of press.