On May 16, a mile-wide tornado with winds up to 152 miles per hour ripped through the city of St. Louis, its worst damage leaving parts of the city’s already disinvested northern neighborhoods in rubble. Missouri’s only statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was toppled. Century-old trees were uprooted. Homes were cracked down the mortar between bricks; roofs collapsed. Three people at the 121-year-old Centennial Christian Church were caught unaware when the tornado touched down and collapsed the north chapel.
As it happened, people throughout the city were caught by surprise because St. Louis’s 60 outdoor warning sirens were not triggered. St. Louis’s emergency management chief, Sarah Russell, was in a workshop at the time, and failed to provide clear instructions to the Fire Department to give the warning. It wouldn’t have mattered; upon later inspection, city officials learned the button to trigger the warning system was not working.
Meanwhile, inside Centennial Christian Church, DeMarco K. Davidson, Metropolitan Congregations United executive director, was trapped under rubble, using his body to try to protect 78-year-old church member Sherril Jackson. He knew Patricia Penelton, who had been volunteering with people experiencing homelessness in the neighborhood, had been trying to close the church door before the collapse. Davidson tried calling 911. The call infuriatingly went to an automated message telling him if he was experiencing an emergency, to call 911. He called a string of people he knew: his sister, a fraternity brother who is a police officer, a minister friend who in turn called a city alderwoman—who in turn called various first responders…